ot so very," she answered. "It's interesting to see and hear
woodchucks in their own homes, and Mister Woodchuck has shown me how
cruel it is for us to set traps for you."

"Good!" said the judge. "But some dreams are easily forgotten, so I'll
teach you a lesson you'll be likely to remember. You shall be caught in
a trap yourself."

"Me!" cried Twinkle, in dismay.

"Yes, you. When you find how dreadfully it hurts you'll bear the traps
in mind forever afterward. People don't remember dreams unless the
dreams are unusually horrible. But I guess you'll remember this one."

He got up and opened a mud cupboard, from which he took a big steel
trap. Twinkle could see that it was just like the trap papa had set to
catch the woodchucks, only it seemed much bigger and stronger.

The judge got a mallet and with it pounded a stake into the mud floor.
Then he fastened the chain of the trap to the stake, and afterward
opened the iron jaws of the cruel-looking thing and set them with a
lever, so that the slightest touch would spring the trap and make the
strong jaws snap together.

"Now, little girl," said he, "you must step in the trap and get caught."

"Why, it would break my leg!" cried Twinkle.

"Did your father care whether a woodchuck got its leg broken or not?"
asked the judge.

"No," she answered, beginning to be greatly frightened.

"Step!" cried the judge, sternly.

"It will hurt awfully," said Mister Woodchuck; "but that can't be
helped. Traps are cruel things, at the best."

Twinkle was now trembling with nervousness and fear.

"Step!" called the judge, again.

"Dear me!" said Mister Woodchuck, just then, as he looked earnestly into
Twinkle's face, "I believe she's going to wake up!"

"That's too bad," said the judge.

"No, I'm glad of it," replied Mister Woodchuck.

And just then the girl gave a start and opened her eyes.

She was lying in the clover, and before her was the opening of the
woodchuck's hole, with the trap still set before it.

Chapter VIII
Twinkle Remembers

"PAPA," said Twinkle, when supper was over and she was nestled snugly in
his lap, "I wish you wouldn't set any more traps for the woodchucks."

"Why not, my darling?" he asked in surprise.

"They're cruel," she answered. "It must hurt the poor animals dreadfully
to be caught in them."

"I suppose it does," said her father, thoughtfully. "But if I don't trap
the woodchucks they eat our clover and vegetables."

"Never mi