And then, all of a sudden, something happened.  One of the men called out: 

“There is a good place to land!”

“Yes, we’ll go down there,” agreed the other.  Then he pulled a string.  Squinty did not know what it was for, but I’ll tell you.  It was to open a hole in the balloon so the gas would rush out.  Then the balloon would begin to fall.

And that is what happened.  Down, down went the balloon.  It went very fast, and Squinty felt dizzy.  Faster and faster fell the balloon, until, at last it gave such a bump down on the ground that Squinty was bounced right over the side of the basket.

Right out of the basket the comical little pig was bounced, but he came down in a soft bed of leaves, so he was not hurt in the least.  He landed on his feet, just like a cat, and gave a loud squeal, he was so surprised.

And then Squinty ran away.  Almost anybody would have run, too, I guess, after falling down in a balloon, and being bounced out that way.  Squinty had had enough of balloon riding.

“I don’t know where I’m going, nor what will happen to me now,” thought Squinty, “but I am going to run and hide.”

And run he did.  He found himself in the woods; just the same kind of woods as where he had first met the two balloon men, only, of course, it was much farther off, for he had traveled a long way through the air.

On and on ran Squinty.  All at once, in a tree over his head, he heard a funny chattering noise.

“Chipper, chipper, chipper!  Chat!  Chat!  Whir-r-r-r-r-!” went the noise.

Squinty looked up in the tree, and there he saw a lovely little girl squirrel, frisking about on the branches.  Then Squinty was no longer afraid.  Out of the leaves he jumped, giving a squeal and a grunt which meant: 

“Oh, how do you do?  I am glad to see you.  My name is Squinty.  What is your name?”

“My name is Slicko,” answered the lively little girl squirrel, as she jumped about.  “Come on and play!”

Squinty felt very happy then.

CHAPTER XI

SQUINTY AND THE MERRY MONKEY

“Where do you live, Squinty?” asked Slicko, the jumping squirrel, as she skipped from one tree branch to another, and so reached the ground near the comical little pig.

“Oh, I live in a pen,” answered Squinty, “but I’m not there now.”

“No, I see you are not,” spoke Slicko, with a laugh, which showed her sharp, white teeth.  “But what are you doing so far away from your pen?  Or, perhaps it is close by, though I never saw you in these woods before,” she went on, looking around as if she might see the pig pen under one of the trees.

“No, I have never been here before,” Squinty answered.  “My pen is far from here.  My master is a boy who taught me to do tricks, such as jumping rope, but I ran away and had a balloon ride.”

“What’s a balloon?” asked Slicko, as she combed out her tail with a chestnut burr.  Squirrels always use chestnut burrs for combs.