110 What the Squirrel Did for Richard.

thought of a country squirrel coming out of a city
hotel.

When the little creature was almost down, he
met with a painful accident. He caught one of the
claws of his right front paw on a rusty nail, and
in his haste to get down, it was broken off!
When he reached the ground, he managed to
change himself into Richard again, without anyone
noticing it, in the noise and confusion. Then,
looking about him in the crowd, he saw at a little
distance, his poor father, who stood there with the
tears running down his cheeks, and who was offer-
ing a great deal of money to anyone who would
go into the burning hotel, and save his boy, but
no one would go. Twice he had tried to go him-
self, but the people held him back, and would not
let him. Richard ran to him, and the father
and son, and indeed all the people about, cried,
but it was for joy. Then Richard noticed that his
right hand was bleeding, and remembered the
rusty nail that had torn his paw a moment before,
when he was a squirrel. Looking at his hand, he
found, to his horror, that the little finger was gone /