“Indeed, I’m not! They don’t chain me up. I’m not a prisoner, either.”
Groundy looked at him in silence, not quite able to understand. Buster was grinning at him as if he enjoyed his perplexity. Finally, Groundy said:
“I can’t believe you, Buster. But there’s one way to show me. If you’re not a prisoner, tied by a chain, climb down here. Then I’ll believe you.”
“I can’t--” began Buster, and then stopped. Of course, if he said that Groundy would go away convinced that he was actually chained inside the window.
“I thought so,” nodded Groundy. “Well, I’m sorry for you. I must be going now.”
“Wait a minute!” called Buster. “I’ll climb down just to show you, but I can’t stay.”
It really wouldn’t do any harm, he thought, to climb down and right back again to show Groundy that he was free. He would do it so quickly that he would be back in the cabin again before any one saw him. Groundy was waiting for him, and Buster couldn’t disappoint him now.
He dropped easily to the ground under the window, and cried: “How was that for a jump, Groundy! You couldn’t do better, could you?”
“No, but the thing that puzzles me is, how are you going to get back again? Anybody can jump down a hill, but not many can jump up it. Can you jump back to the window-sill?”
Buster had not given much thought to this. He looked up, and the window was so high above his head he knew that he could never jump half the way.
“I don’t know,” he stammered. “But maybe I can climb back. I’ve got good claws, and I can climb a tree.”
“That may be, Buster, but you can’t climb the side of a house,” replied Groundy. “If you can I’ll watch you.”
Groundy squatted down, and Buster anxious to show how well he could climb started to go up the side of the house; but a bear hugs a tree when climbing it, and Buster couldn’t get his paws around the cabin any more than he could fly to the moon. He made several attempts to dig his claws in the logs to pull himself up, but each time he tumbled back to the ground before he could reach half way. But he wasn’t going to give up trying right away, and again and again he made the attempt until completely exhausted.
“You can’t do it, Buster,” remarked Groundy finally, rising to his feet. “I knew you couldn’t. It’s easier to roll down a hill than roll up it.”
