ur father, and of all other men that have set
traps."

"Why, if you feel that way," said the little girl, "you're just as bad
as we are!"

"How's that?" asked Mister Woodchuck, pausing in his walk to look at
her.

"It's as naughty to want revenge as it is to be selfish and cruel," she
said.

"I believe you are right about that," answered the animal, taking off
his silk hat and rubbing the fur smooth with his elbow. "But woodchucks
are not perfect, any more than men are, so you'll have to take us as you
find us. And now I'll call my family, and exhibit you to them. The
children, especially, will enjoy seeing the wild human girl I've had the
luck to capture."

"Wild!" she cried, indignantly.

"If you're not wild now, you will be before you wake up," he said.

Chapter IV
Mrs. Woodchuck and Her Family

BUT Mister Woodchuck had no need to call his family, for just as he
spoke a chatter of voices was heard and Mrs. Woodchuck came walking down
a path of the garden with several young woodchucks following after her.

The lady animal was very fussily dressed, with puffs and ruffles and
laces all over her silk gown, and perched upon her head was a broad
white hat with long ostrich plumes. She was exceedingly fat, even for a
woodchuck, and her head fitted close to her body, without any neck
whatever to separate them. Although it was shady in the garden, she held
a lace parasol over her head, and her walk was so mincing and airy that
Twinkle almost laughed in her face.

The young woodchucks were of several sizes and kinds. One little
woodchuck girl rolled before her a doll's baby-cab, in which lay a
woodchuck doll made of cloth, in quite a perfect imitation of a real
woodchuck. It was stuffed with something soft to make it round and fat,
and its eyes were two glass beads sewn upon the face. A big boy
woodchuck wore knickerbockers and a Tam o' Shanter cap and rolled a
hoop; and there were several smaller boy and girl woodchucks, dressed
quite as absurdly, who followed after their mother in a long train.

"My dear," said Mister Woodchuck to his wife, "here is a human creature
that I captured just outside our front door."

"Huh!" sneered the lady woodchuck, looking at Twinkle in a very haughty
way; "why will you bring such an animal into our garden, Leander? It
makes me shiver just to look at the horrid thing!"

"Oh, mommer!" yelled one of the children, "see how skinny the beast is!"

"Hasn't any hair on its face