LADY GRAY.
One summer Robert and his father and mother lived in a little house in the woods.
They saw a squirrel running about in the trees.
Robert put some nuts on the ground and hid behind a tree. Soon the squirrel came and carried them away.
The next day he put the nuts nearer the house. The squirrel came again and carried them away.
So it went on for some time. Each day Robert put the nuts nearer the house.
They named the squirrel Lady Gray.
One day Robert’s mother sat down in a chair on the porch. She put some nuts on the floor and kept very still.
After a while Lady Gray came up on the porch. She looked at Robert’s mother, then she took a nut and ran away as fast as she could.
By and by Lady Gray became so gentle that she would hunt for nuts in their pockets.
One morning Father put a nut on his shoulder. Lady Gray jumped on Father’s shoulder and ate the nut. How they all laughed.
The next summer Robert went again to the little house in the woods.
Robert’s father wanted the house to look pretty, so he painted it white and green.
In the morning Robert called out, “Mother! Mother! See what the squirrels have done!”
The porch was covered with marks of little feet.
Lady Gray saw Robert and came up on the porch. A baby squirrel was with her. They named it Little Son.
Soon Little Son was as gentle as Lady Gray. Sometimes he would let them put their hands on his soft fur.
One day Robert was out walking with his father. They saw a hole in an old tree.
Robert’s father held him up so that he could put his hand in the hole. The squirrel’s nest was almost full of nuts.
All summer Robert had good times, playing with Lady Gray and Little Son.