The boy and the squirrel

There was a young boy who very much wanted to catch a squirrel. Every day after school he would run into the woods behind his house to a small clearing, where, among other things, was a tree stump just his size. There he would catch his breath and begin to look for bushy tails and quick movements in the forest. Ever since he could remember, he had loved everything about squirrels, and now, all that he thought about was catching one and having one as a pet.

When he would spot a squirrel from his spot on the stump he would carefully crouch down and slowly take a few steps toward his desire. He knew that squirrels were very sensitive to movement, so he made sure to approach as sneakily as he could. But just when he would get close enough to reach out his small hands to scoop it up, every time the squirrel would dart away to the safety of a nearby tree.

The boy tried for days and days to catch a squirrel. He just couldn't seem to do it. One day, as he sat on the stump, he began to feel like he'd never catch the squirrel, so he just sat on the stump instead of trying. Each day after school he would return to the stump, and slowly he became interested in other things in the woods, like the flowers and bugs and the stream nearby.

It happened one day, that as he was eating a small piece of bread and examining a flower, a squirrel came to his side. He was so enamored with the flower that at first he didn't even realize a squirrel, that creature he had so desired, was sitting on its hind legs right next to him. He looked over, and saw that the squirrel was interested in the bread the young boy was eating. So the boy took a piece and gave it to the squirrel. Each day the squirrel would return, and the young boy would take a pieces of bread and feed it.

The squirrel grew to trust the boy as the days went on. He would follow the boy throughout the woods, sitting nearby as the boy picked flowers and dug up worms. The days grew on, and without even trying, the boy finally had his pet squirrel.