"Dear little squirrel, pretty creature! I know now what makes you sad.
You long to be abroad among your own green woods, and sleeping on the soft
green moss, which is far prettier than this ugly cotton wool. But you
shall stay with me, my sweet one, till the cold winter is passed and gone,
and the spring flowers have come again; and then, my pretty squirrel, I
will take you out of your dull cage, and we will go to St. Helen's green
island, and I will let you go free; but I will put a scarlet collar about
your neck before I let you go, that, if any one finds you, they may know
that you are my squirrel. Were you ever in the green forest, nurse? I hear
Papa talk about the 'Bush' and the 'Backwoods;' it must be very pleasant
in the summer, to live among the green trees. Were you ever there?"

"Yes, dear lady, I did live in the woods when I was a child. I was born
in a little log-shanty, far, far away up the country, near a beautiful
lake, called Rice Lake, among woods, and valleys, and hills covered with
flowers, and groves of pine, and white and black oaks."

"Stop, nurse, and tell me why they are called black and white; are the
flowers black and white?"

"No, my lady; it is because the wood of the one is darker than the other,
and the leaves of the black oak are dark and shining, while those of the
white oak are brighter and lighter. The black oak is a beautiful tree.
When I was a young girl, I used to like to climb the sides of the steep
valleys, and look down upon the tops of the oaks that grew beneath; and to
watch the wind lifting the boughs all glittering in the moonlight; they
looked like a sea of ruffled green water. It is very solemn, Lady Mary, to
be in the woods by night, and to hear no sound but the cry of the great
wood-owl, or the voice of the whip-poor-will, calling to his fellow from