Page:Cheery and the chum (IA cheerychum00yate).pdf/20

 ters, and out onto the vine-covered porch at the back of the house.

Cheery looked all about, but could see nothing but a queer-looking tin box on a wooden shelf. She went up to it, and looked closer, but it was only a tin box about a foot long and six inches high, and on one end, a sort of a wire shed, and, fastened to that, a tiny wire wheel, just like the wheel on a squirrel cage, only ever and ever so much smaller, not more than three inches high.

Cheery put out her finger and turned the wheel very gently, then she looked at Aunt Beth. "It isn't a wee, wee little bit of a pink and white squirrel, is it?" she asked, with big eyes.

Aunt Beth unfastened the lid of the box, which was on hinges, and turned it back, and Cheery peered in. At first she could see nothing but a little heap of white paper scraps, but presently she thought she saw something pink in the pile of paper, and she held her breath and looked closer.