Bunny could feel the heart of the frightened squirrel beating very hard,
and the little animal seemed to shrink closer to the boy, as though it
knew it would be taken care of. Dix and Splash bounded about, now and
then leaping up against Bunny as though they wanted to get the squirrel
away from him.

But Bunny stood firm, and cried "Down, sir!" in such sharp tones that
the dogs knew they must mind. They gave up the hope of getting the
squirrel (that is, if they knew it was such an animal) and ran off to
have a game of "tag" together.

"Dix knew it wasn't a cat as soon as he saw it," explained Bunny to Sue
as they walked back toward the big auto, Bunny carrying the injured
squirrel, one of whose legs seemed broken. "Dix knew it was a wild
animal," went on the little boy, "and that's why he chased it."

"I'm glad he didn't get it," murmured Sue, softly.

"So am I," replied her brother. "We'll get Uncle Tad to fix the sore
leg, and then we'll make a cage and keep the squirrel. Some day we may
get up another circus, and we could have it do tricks."

"Don't you think the squirrel would rather be in the woods?" asked Sue,
as she looked at the gray creature.

"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?"