102 What the Squirrel Did for Richard.

know him as he was now, and that his friend, the
squirrel, had neglected to tell him how he was to
turn himself back into a boy again. -

“Then I must always be a squirrel,” he said,
‘and never, never go home to dear Papa and
Mamma any more.”

At this dreadful thought his tears began to flow,
and, forgetting that he was no longer a boy, he
tried to put his little paw into his pocket, to get a
handkerchief to wipe those tears. Suddenly he
caught sight of his bushy tail. ‘The very thing
for a handkerchief,’ he thought, and was about to
use it, when he noticed on the extreme end of the
tail, and almost hidden by the soft fur, a small
knob that looked very much like an electric-bell
button. On this was printed, in letters so small
that, had not his eyes been very small too, I am
sure he never could have read it, ‘‘ Press the but-
ton.’ Curling his tail over his head, he pressed
the knob hard against his little sharp brown nose,
and immediately he became—Richard—the boy,
again.

Running home as fast as he could, for he felt