"I have got a small door to make, and a button for the large door, and a ladder to get up to the loft. Then I have got to clear the hen-house all out, and put it in order. What is in this barrel?" "That is where the hens lay sometimes," said Phonny, "when they don't lay in the barn." So saying, Phonny walked into the corner where the barrel stood, and there he found three eggs in the nest. "Three eggs," said he. "I think Dorothy has not been out here to-day. That is the beginning of your profits. You can take two of them; we have to leave one for the nest-egg." Phonny proposed that Stuyvesant should carry the eggs in, and give them to Dorothy; but he said he would not do it then. He would leave them where they were for the present, and go and look for the box. Stuyvesant was intending to look, at the same time, for the materials necessary for his door, his ladder, and his button. Phonny, accordingly, led the way, and Stuyvesant followed, into various apartments in the barns and sheds, where lumber was stored, or where it might be expected to be found. There were several boxes in these places, but some were too large, and others too small, and one, which seemed about right in respect to size, was made of rough boards, and so Phonny thought that it would not do. At last he found some boxes under a corn-barn, one of which he thought would do very well. It was about two feet long, when laid down upon its side, and one foot wide and high. The open part was to be closed by a wire front which was yet to be made. "Now," said Phonny, "help me to get the box to the shop, and then Wallace is coming down to help me make it into a cage." So Phonny and Stuyvesant, working together, got the box into the shop. The bench had been cleared off, so that there was a good space there to put the box upon. Phonny and Stuyvesant placed it there, and then Phonny went to the trap to see if his squirrel was safe. "Now, Frink," said he, "we are going to make you a beautiful cage. Wait a little longer, and then we will let you out of that dark trap." Phonny said this as he passed across the floor toward the horse-block. As soon however as he came near to the trap, he suddenly called out to Stuyvesant, "Why, Stuyvesant, see how big this hole is." He referred to the hole which the squirrel had begun to gnaw. Somehow or other the opening had grown very large. Phonny stooped down with his hands upon his knees and peeped into the trap. The squirrel was gone. "He's gone!" said Phonny. "He's gone!" So saying he lifted up the lid gradually, and then holding out the empty trap to Stuyvesant, he exclaimed again in a tone of despair,--"He's gone!" "He gnawed out," said Stuyvesant. "Yes," said Phonny.