influence over Arthur was very good; while Arthur's gentler nature and
more refined manners were of service to Theodore, who was not very
particular about little things.

One night, as Theodore and Arthur were coming home from school, they
stopped to look at a squirrel's nest in a hollow tree, just in the wood.
A pretty striped squirrel was running up and down a tree at a little
distance, whisking his bushy tail, and watching them with his large,
bright eyes. They found a large store of nuts in the hollow tree, and
Theodore proposed they should take them out.

"Oh no, no!" said Arthur, "would you have the poor squirrel starve?"

"Oh, he'll find enough to eat, never fear," said Theodore, "a squirrel
is too cunning to starve."

"But it isn't right to take them, Theodore. Just think how many hours
the little fellow worked, and how hard he tugged to get them all in
here, and they are _his_ now, I'm sure; he has a good right to
them, and I wouldn't any sooner rob him of his nuts, than I would a man
of his money!"

"La, what a fuss you make about it;" said Theodore with a loud laugh,
"but since you feel so bad, I'll let his squirrelship alone, this time."

"Thank you," said Arthur, "and now, Theodore, I must say if you had done
it, I wouldn't have liked to play with you so well as I did before, for
I should think you were a cruel boy, and I couldn't love you."

"You are a curious fellow," said Theodore, with another loud laugh. Such