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 "That is what I would do if I could," said Gray-brush; "but you see these bars are so hard that I cannot gnaw them without breaking my teeth, and all the inside of my cage is just the same."

"Why did you let my master get you?" asked Frisky.

"I was hurt," said Gray-brush. "I fell from a tall tree when I was running very fast to get some medicine for my poor father. He was awful sick, and I am afraid that he is dead by this time. I was going to get him some bark from the spotted osier for his rheumatism."

"Have you a mother, too?" asked Frisky with interest.

"Oh, yes," said Gray-brush, "and brothers and sisters and uncles and aunts and cousins, and I would like to see them all so much."

Poor Gray-brush wiped a tear from the corner of his eye with his tail, and then sat up very straight, that Frisky might not see what he had done.

"I wish you could see them all," said Frisky, sympathetically; "but I would hate to have you leave us, you are so cunning, and I like you very much."

"I think your master would let me go if he knew how much I longed for the woods, don't you?" asked Gray-brush.

"I don't know," said Frisky, rather doubtfully. "He is good to every one, and perhaps he might; but you see he does not know, be-