It's difficult to say whether the small beast was able to thus tell his trouble about Johnny. Anyway, Ham liked the following conversation that he heard. This happened after everybody calmed down, and Johnny asked his parents,
"Please, have pity on him. He is too bored. Let's buy a squirrel wheel for our hamster!"
"What's that?" Papa asked.
"It's a wheel the pet runs inside of and turns, but stays in once place."
"OK, I agree to look for such a wonder," said Mama. Johnny had a kindly mother!
Thus, the wheel was bought and put by the window. What an unexpected surprise for the whole family when the small, clever beast suspiciously approached the unknown thing, touched the wheel with his sharp nose, and suddenly stood stock-still looking at how it began to turn. But the real wonder came later. The hamster himself climbed up the wheel rungs and, with a gaze of amazement, quickly rushed to attempt to reach the peak. However, it was in vain. Ham was running, nevertheless, staying at almost the same place. The hard toiler was panting, puffing, and snorting very loudly,
"Puff-piff, puff-ffrr!" and he moved so quickly that the wheel was invisible.
It was two o'clock in the afternoon. The hamster that had been running since early in the morning had not had one break. He was very tired and his strength had run out. But small Ham did not give in. He tried to keep his spirits up in such a song,
"Oh, stairs up, oh, stairs up, oh how they're a lot,
My feet escape, my feet escape, and heart beats hard,
Not so lightly, not so lightly rotates the hugest wheel,
If I could reach a darling peak, it would be, oh, the biggest deal!"
So, he was running and happy.
Somebody emerged and called to him.
"Hello, chap! What are you doing?"
At the sill of the opened window was running to and fro a very brisk squirrel. It would run and suddenly curdle, run and curdle. And its tail was bending like a saxophone.
"Please, don't bother me! I'm very busy!" the hamster snapped and continued puffing like a locomotive.
"Hruph-hruph-puph..."
The squirrel jumped up on the edge of the top of window and hung with his head down.
"Stupid cuss, listen to what I have to say to you."
"I...pruph-truph...don't want to listen to you!"
The catchy squirrel thought of what to do and screamed,
"Be careful!!! Stop!!! A big bee is sitting on your belly! Stop, bulky guy!"
The scared hamster stumbled over and fell down the stairs. The untwisted wheel continued to rotate, turning him with his short tail back up, then stopped. Ham could not hold himself and flew to the floor.
The squirrel sprang to him and said,
"Now listen to me. Try to keep your spirits up, ninny! Don't dream of touching the top of the wheel! It's quite impossible. Do you not believe me?"
"How do you know?"
"My grandmother told me long ago that people invented this wheel to amuse themselves. They like to see how we uselessly try to get to the top. For us it's much better to be running in the forest. If you still want to climb up high, we can do it more easily. Let's go!"
With much difficulty the squirrel urged the hamster, and, after several times, they strolled through the wonderful woods with tall, powerful green pines and oaks. Sunny glades were strewn with plenty of various colored flowers, over which soared beautiful butterflies waving their decorated wings.
The hamster was so amazed at such a striking landscape that big tears formed in his eyes.
The squirrel didn't lie to the hamster. It was really simple and easy climbing high toward the trunk of the tree. There they chose a long, flexible branch waving from the wind.
"Look what a wonderful scenery is around," the squirrel said, delighted, and continued, "There in the South early in the morning behind the mountains the sun rises. It sets on the other side in West straight over the ocean."
"Indeed, it's very nice," Ham agreed.
He watched, fascinated, how the ocean waves glittered like silver, then how the woodpecker furiously knocked with his long beak the nearest tree trunk, and was abstract of a small spider who dropped on the shiny web past his nose.
