“That’s the way to do it!” cried Mrs. Squirrel, as she saw Slicko sailing down through the air toward the limb on which was perched Mr. Squirrel.

“Don’t be afraid. You’ll get down all right!” called Mr. Squirrel.

Slicko fluffed out her tail as wide as she could. She felt that it was her tail which would save her from landing too hard and hurting her paws. Nearer and nearer she came to the limb on which was her papa.

“Here you are!” cried Mr. Squirrel, a moment later, and with a little shaking up, Slicko found herself safely beside her dear papa.

“Wasn’t that nice?” asked Mr. Squirrel, moving over close beside his little girl.

“Oh, indeed it was,” said Slicko, breathing a little faster than usual, for this was her first jump, you see.

“Now, Chatter, Fluffy and Nutto! It’s your turns!” said Mrs. Squirrel. “See, Slicko made a good jump, and you can each do the same. Come on.”

“Yes, do!” said Mr. Squirrel. “You really must learn to jump, and then I’ll tell you why.”

“Oh, is it a secret?” asked Chatter, the other little girl squirrel. She was a sister to Slicko.

“Yes, it’s a secret,” answered Mrs. Squirrel.

Now I am not quite sure about it, but I suppose girl squirrels want to hear a secret just as much as real girls do, and I have always found that if you wanted to get a real little girl to do anything for you, that she would do it ever so much more quickly, if she thought there was a secret about it.

Perhaps that is why Chatter made up her mind to jump as Slicko had done. Mind, I am not saying for sure, for I don’t know. But maybe it was so.

Anyhow, Chatter moved over close to the edge of the tree limb. She looked down to where her papa and Slicko sat up on their hind legs, watching her.

“Here I come! Catch me!” spoke Chatter.

“All right—don’t be afraid,” answered her papa. “You won’t fall.”

Chatter gave a jump, and down she went. Almost before she knew it, she had landed on a smooth place on the limb, close beside her sister and papa.

“There! I did it!” cried Chatter, in delight.

“Of course you did!” said Slicko. “Wasn’t it fine?”

“It certainly was,” agreed Chatter.

“Come now! The girls have jumped, and you boys mustn’t let them get ahead of you!” called Mr. Squirrel, to Nutto and Fluffy. “Come on, jump down here.”

Well, of course the boy squirrels weren’t going to let the girl squirrels beat them, so first Nutto jumped, and then Fluffy.

“There, now you have all learned to jump,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “Of course this is only the beginning. You must practice every day, just as you did when you were learning to climb trees, by sticking your sharp toe-nails in the soft bark. Every day you do a little jumping.”

“But why, Mamma?” asked Slicko. “Is that the secret?”

“That is the secret,” answered Mr. Squirrel. “You must learn to jump because your mamma saw a hunter-man, with a gun and dog in our woods this morning, and we must be ready to run away, and hide, if he should find our nest.

“And, as you cannot always run or walk, and climb trees, you must need to know how to jump, so you can jump out of danger. That is why we gave you jumping lessons to-day. Now, when you are rested, you must jump some more. And you must learn to jump up as well as jump down, though jumping down is easier.”

The squirrel children asked many questions about the hunter-man, with his dog and gun, and Papa and Mamma Squirrel told their little ones all they knew, warning them always to hide when they saw a man with a gun.

“Well, I’m going to learn to jump farther and higher,” said Slicko. “No hunter is going to catch me, if I can help it.”

So Slicko began practicing jumping, going from one tree branch to another, up and down, and sideways. The papa and mamma squirrel watched on all sides while their children were jumping, to make sure the hunter-man did not come.

Whether it was because Slicko was larger and stronger than her brothers and sister, or because she practiced harder, I do not know. But it is certain that, in a few days, Slicko was the best jumping squirrel in that part of the woods. She could jump farther than could Chatter, and even though Nutto and Fluffy were boy squirrels, Slicko could beat them.

“Yes, Slicko is certainly a fine jumper,” said Mrs. Squirrel, to her husband one day. “She can jump almost as far as we can.”

“Well, I hope she is careful,” spoke Mr. Squirrel. “I was over near the swamp, to-day, looking to see if I could find any sweetflag root for supper, and I heard a noise like a gun. That hunter-man is still in the woods.”

“Maybe it was thunder you heard,” said Mrs. Squirrel.

“No, I’m sure it was the gun of the hunter-man,” went on her husband. “Well, I am glad the little ones can jump. It will help them to keep out of his way.”

“Indeed it will,” said Mrs. Squirrel.

For a week or so after this, the little squirrels practiced jumping every day. As soon as they had had their breakfast of nuts, or oats or wheat, which their papa or mamma brought in from the farmer’s fields, the little squirrels would begin jumping.

Sometimes they would run up and down the tree trunks, and again they would pretend to hide under the leaves, for their parents had told them that was a good way to keep out of sight when there was any danger in the forest.

The Squirrel family lived in the woods, a very nice woods indeed; with many green trees growing in it. The ground in some places was covered with brown leaves, that had fallen off the trees, and in other places there was soft green moss, like the velvet carpet in the parlor at your house.

And, not far from the tree where Slicko and the other squirrels lived, was a pretty brook that ran through the wood, making nice music as it trickled over the stones. The water was cool, and good to drink, and often Slicko, and her brothers and sister, would come to the edge of the brook to bathe, or get a drink.

One day, after she had practiced her jumping lesson for some time, Slicko said to her sister, Chatter:

“Come on, let’s take a little walk in the woods. It is nearly time for chestnuts to be ripe, and we may find some.”

“Oh, I don’t want to go,” Chatter said. “I am tired from having jumped so much. I am going to lie down on the green moss, and go to sleep.”

“Oh, then will you come, Nutto?” asked Slicko, of her brother.

“No, for Fluffy and I are going to hunt hickory nuts,” said the boy squirrel. “You had better come with us. Chestnuts are not ripe yet. You won’t find any. But, if you come with us, you’ll find some hickory nuts.”

“Oh, I think I can find some chestnuts,” spoke Slicko, and then, as neither her brothers nor her sister would come with her, the little girl jumping squirrel started off in the woods by herself.

She ran along on the ground a little way. Then she climbed up a tree, and running out on a branch of that, she leaped from the end of it to the end of another branch, in a tree a little farther on. Slicko was a good jumper.

In this way she hurried on until she was quite a way from her home-nest.

All of a sudden, Slicko heard a noise in the bushes, as if some big animal were breaking a way through them.

“My! I hope that isn’t the hunter-man and his dog!” exclaimed Slicko in a whisper to herself. “I had better be careful, and take a look before I go on any farther.”

So the little jumping squirrel cuddled down under some leaves on the tree branch where she was sitting, and peered out. At first she could see nothing, except the bushes below her waving as something pushed through them. Whatever it was, it seemed to be coming nearer and nearer her tree.

Slicko felt sure it was the hunter-man, and she was getting ready to give a big jump, and hurry home to the nest, when, all at once, she saw something sort of pink and white come out of the bush. As soon as Slicko saw this, she knew it was not a hunter-man, for it walked on four feet, whereas a hunter walks on two feet.

“Why, it’s a little pig!” exclaimed Slicko, looking down. She knew it was a pig, because, not far from the woods where she lived, there was a farm, and on the farm was a pen of pigs. Slicko had seen them once.

“Yes, that’s a pig! I’m not afraid of him,” said the little squirrel girl. “Hello!” she called down to the pig, who was rooting along in the ground, looking for something to eat, I suppose.

“Hello!” called Slicko. “What’s your name?”

“Oh, hello! How you frightened me, calling that way!” answered the pig. “My name is Squinty. What’s yours?”

Now if you had been listening to this talk between the two animals—the squirrel and the pig—all you would have heard would have been something like this:

“Chatter! Chat! Chat! Chit! Chit! Chirp! Chir-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!”

And then:

“Uff! Uff! Wuff! Wuff! Ugh! Ugh!”

One was the squirrel talking, and the other was the pig answering.

Of course it would not sound like real talk, such as you use, but it was real enough for Slicko and Squinty, and they could understand each other very well. They could also understand man-talk, your talk, also, as I will tell you a little later. But neither Slicko nor Squinty could speak man-language.

“Ha! So your name is Squinty, eh?” asked Slicko, of the little pig. “Why are you called such a funny name?”

“Because one of my eyes squints a little,” was the answer. “See!” Squinty looked up to show Slicko, and the little pig was such a funny picture, as he stood there, with one eye partly shut, and the other wide open, with his head on one side, and one ear cocked forward and the other backward, he was so funny, I say, that Slicko could not help laughing.

“Huh! What are you laughing at?” asked Squinty, in his funny grunting voice, with his little flat, rubbery nose wiggling sideways, and also up and down.

“I am laughing at you,” answered Slicko. “Excuse me, but I can’t help it. You are so funny, and you have such a funny name.”

“Oh, I don’t mind being laughed at,” said Squinty, with a sort of pig-laugh. “I am glad if you want to laugh, for it is better to laugh than cry. And I don’t mind my funny name,” he said. I think that was very nice of Squinty to say, don’t you?

“I am glad I met you,” said the little girl squirrel. “At first I thought you were a hunter in the bushes.”

“And I thought you were some one chasing me, when you called that way,” said Squinty. “But you haven’t told me your name yet.”

“I am Slicko, the jumping squirrel,” was the answer, “and I am hunting in these woods for some chestnuts. What are you doing here?”

“I am here because I have run away,” said Squinty. “I am looking for something to eat. Are hickory nuts good?”

“Very good,” Slicko answered. “I’ll see if I can find some for each of us.”

The little squirrel found some hickory nuts, but they were so hard that Squinty, the comical pig, could not eat them.

“I guess you’d like some acorns, they are softer,” Slicko said.

“Indeed I would, thank you,” spoke Squinty.

Then Slicko led the little pig to where there were some acorn nuts, and Squinty ate them. Very glad he was to get them, too, for he was quite hungry.

“Why are you called Slicko?” asked Squinty, when he did not feel quite so hungry as at first.

“My mamma called me that,” answered the little squirrel, “because my fur is so slick and shiny.”

“It is a good name,” said Squinty. “Don’t you want to travel along with me, through the woods, and have adventures?”

“Thank you, no. I guess not,” replied Slicko. “Hark! What’s that?”

They both listened, and heard a sound like:

“Chatter! Chatter! Chat! Chit! Chat! Chir-r-r-r-r-r!”

“What is it?” asked Squinty, in a whisper.

“That is my mamma calling me,” answered Slicko. “I must go back to the nest now. Good-bye, funny little pig.”

“Good-bye,” answered Squinty, and he went on, looking for adventures. He had many of them, and I have told you about them in the first of these books, called “Squinty, the Comical Pig.” He was bought by a boy, taught to do many tricks, and finally ran back again to his home in the pen on the farm.

After Slicko had said good-bye to Squinty, the comical pig, the little girl squirrel ran and jumped on through the woods, for her mother kept calling to her to come to the nest.

“My, I hope nothing has happened,” said Slicko, as she hurried on. “And I didn’t find any chestnuts,” she said, as she looked at the few hickory nuts she was bringing home. “Fluffy and Nutto will laugh at me. But I don’t care.”

Pretty soon Slicko reached the nest.

“My! Where have you been?” asked her mamma.

“Looking for chestnuts,” answered Slicko.

“Did you find any?” asked Nutto, as he and his brother came climbing up the tree just then.

“No, but I found some hickory nuts, and some acorns, and I gave some acorns to a cute little pig,” said Slicko, explaining how she had met Squinty.

“I wish we had gone with you,” said Fluffy. “I’d like to have seen that pig. Come on, Nutto. Let’s go out and see if we can find him in the woods.”

“No, you must not go away!” chattered Mrs. Squirrel. “I want you all to stay here. Something has happened, and we shall have to go away from our nice nest.”

“Go away from our nest!” cried Slicko, in surprise.

“Yes,” answered Mrs. Squirrel. “It is no longer safe to stay here. But here comes your papa. He will tell you all about it. We are in great danger, and that is why I called you all back. Now listen to what your papa has to say.”