“Well, maybe yes,” agreed Bunny.  “After we have it in the circus a while we’ll let it go.  ’Member how we played circus, Sue?”

“I guess I do!  We had lots of fun, didn’t we?”

“We did!”

From across the fields came a call: 

“Come to supper, children!”

“We’re coming, Momsie!” shouted Bunny.

“And we’re bringing a squirrel to supper too!” added Sue, who always liked to be counted in on everything.

“A squirrel!” exclaimed Uncle Tad when he saw the gray creature that had fallen out of the tree.  “Where did you get it?”

The children told what had happened, and Uncle Tad looked at the squirrel’s leg.

“Can you fix it, or make him a new wooden leg?” asked Sue.

Uncle Tad looked the squirrel over carefully.  The woodland animal did not seem to mind being handled.  It seemed to know it was in the hands of friends, and safe from the barking dogs.  And though wild squirrels quickly bite one who manages to catch them alive in the woods, this one did not offer to nip the hands of the children or of Uncle Tad.

“Yes,” said Uncle Tad after a bit, “I think I can mend this squirrel’s leg.  It doesn’t seem to be broken, only strained and bruised.  I guess Dix didn’t bite it very hard.  I’ll make some splints, or little sticks, to put on, so the squirrel can’t move his leg, and I’ll bandage it.  Then it will get well quicker.”

A little box, filled with straw and soft rags, was made as a home for the squirrel after Uncle Tad had bound up its leg.  Then Bunny and Sue finally went to supper, after having been called several times.  And even then they could not leave the little squirrel, but ran back every now and then to look at it, as it curled up on the soft bed.  Over the box was put a wire cover so the squirrel could not get out and so Dix or Splash could not get at it.

“What are we going to give the squirrel to eat?” asked Bunny, when he had finished his supper.  “He’s got to have something to eat.”

“And he’s got to have a name,” added Sue.  “We can’t call him just ‘squirrel’ for we may get another.”

“Call him Fluffy,” suggested Mother Brown.  “His tail is so soft and fluffs out so beautifully.”

“Fluffy is a good name,” decided Bunny, and Sue said the same thing.

“But what about giving him something to eat?” asked Bunny.

“Bread soaked in milk will do for to-night,” said Uncle Tad.  “Afterward we’ll try to find him some nuts, though it’s a little early.  Still he’ll eat seeds and grain.”

Bunny and Sue took a last look at Fluffy, the squirrel, before they went to their bunks that night.  Dix and Splash were called in and shown the squirrel in his little nest.  Then Mr. Brown told both dogs sharply and solemnly that they must not bother the gray, woodland creature.  Dix and Splash understood, I think, for they were smart dogs.

Both children were up early the next morning to see their new pet, and they fed Fluffy some dried crackers.  At first the squirrel was a bit timid, but it soon poked its sharp nose and mouth out of a little opening on the side of the wire netting over the box and ate from the hands of Bunny and Sue.