THE NUT STORE

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 212, 26 November 1927, Page 29 (Supplement)

THE NUT STORE

Feuiherta.il was a squirrel, and in lived at the top of the tallest tree ir the Beech Wood. His coat was red am! brown, almost exactly the colour of th« beech leaves in autumn, and he had . white waistcoat that was ever so nea and trim. When he sat up on si brand of the beech tree and nibble ’ bead nuts, which he held In his litt.c fron paws, his tail curled up over Lis head just like a big. fluffy feather. Feat her tail made lots of store cup boards and filled them full of ruts, bu it was inside a hollow tree that h« made his biggest cupboard of all. Ttaer. was a big hollow place in the tree air he filled it almost up with beech nuts and hazelnuts and chestnuts, and then covered them all over with dead leaver and twigs to hide them from pryini • 1 11 keep this * up boa d till the vet last.” he said to himself. And wliei. winter came and the nuts from th» trees had all gone, he ate first one littl*' pile of food and then another, and didn’t go near the cupboard in the hoi low tree till all the food in tie othe? cupboards was gone. At last there came i day when all Feathertail’s smaller cupboards wer« empty. The winter was only half ov» : but Feat her tail didn tmind that. “There’s heaps and heaps of food in my big cupboard. Enough lo last in* till the winter’s quite over.” h>» said And ho set off to visit the hollow treto uncover his biggest store But there was a dreadful slioek waft ing for Squirrel Feathertail. When 1came to the hollow tree there was nothing in it at all. Every single on*of the nuts was gono. “Somebody’s stolen them!” cried Feather tail. And full of distress and indignation he hurried round the Beech Wood to try and find out who it was who had been robbing the hollow tree He went first to the other squirrels “Somebody’s been stealing the nuts out of my cupboard in the hollow tree.' he said. “Was it any of you?” “Of course it wasn’t!” cried the othei squirrels. “We’ve got plenty of nuts of our own. We wouldn’t steal yours. “Well. then, who can it be?” said Feathertail “We don’t (know. Perhaps it was th« rabbits. You’d better go and ask them,” said the other squirrels. So Feathertail scurried off to ask the rabbits. “Somebody's been stealing the nuts out of my cupboard in the hollow tree. Was it'any of you?” lie said. “Of course it wasn’t. We don’t eat nuts.” cried the rabbits. “Well, then, if it wasn’t you. who can it be?” said Feathertail. “We don’t know. Perhaps it wh.the foxes. You’d better go and ask them,” said the rabbits. | So Feathertail hurried a way to ask I the foxes. “Somebody’s been stealing the nuts 1 out of my tup board in the hollow tree, he said. “Was it any of you?” “Of course it wasn’t!” cried the foxes. And the biggest fox said: “We don’t eat nuts. We eat rabbits and pheasants and silly little creatures like you.” And he gave such a snap of his jaws that Feathertail hopped up in the air and scuttled away as fast as he could go, and didn’t stop to ask the foxes who else it could be. After that Feathertail went to everj dweller in the wood. He went to the jays and the pheasants and the dormice and the hedgehogs and the weasels and the rooks and e very bod > else. And to everybody he said:

“Somebody’s stolen the nuts out of my cupboard in the hollow tree. Was it any of you?” And everybody got very angry and indignant and cried:

“Of course it wasn’t!” And told him to go and ask somebooy else. At last there wasn’t anybody else in j the whole of the wood to ask. Ami poor Feathertail, who was very tired and very hungry too by this time, sat down on the ground and began to cry. And really he had something to cry about. For the winter was only hall i over and he had nothing left to eat and Ihe was ever so hungry, and it would b* months and months before he would be able to gather any nuts again, i As he sat and sobbed a robin red ! breast came along. The robin didn I live in the wood, but he often came that way to chat with the birds and animal" that lived in it, and he stopped when Ihe saw Squirrel Feathertail. “Why, Feathertail, what’s the matter with you ?” he asked kindly. “Somebody’s stolen the nuts out or ! my cupboard in the hollow tree. And : I can’t find out who it is, and I shan't i have any more food to eat nil the win I ter, and I am so dreadfully hungry, j sobbed Feathertail. j “Dear me, that’s bad.” said the robin. I “You’re sure that the nuts have been I stolen. I suppose?” ‘ Quite sure. There Isn’t a nut lef! {in the tree,” said Feathertail. “And you’re certain that you looked lin the right tree?” said the robin. “Because there are lots and lots of hollow trees in the wood, and you do mak# mistakes sometimes, you know.” Feathertail stopped crying and looked at the robin. “Oh! I wonder if I looked in the • wrong tree?” h#* said. “I shouldn’t be a bit surprised if vo did.” said the robin. “Come along •and show me the tree you think your I cupboard was in, and we’ll look in tip ' tree on the right of it and the treron the left of it and the tree in front quite sure that you have looked in the . of it. and the tree behind it. and makSo Feathertail and the robin hurried I away to the tre** where Feathertail thought he “had hidden his nut-. An<l they looked in the tree to the right of 1 it, but there were no nuts there. And they looked In the tree to the left «.• , it, but there were no nuts there. And they looked in the tree in front of it But there were no nuts there. But when they cam#' to look in the tree behind it. they found that that was a hollow tree, too. And there, inside it. i hidden beneath the twigs and dead ! leaves, were all Feathertail's nuts. quite safe and sound, every single on# . ' “Oh, dear! How silly I am' I looked in the wrong tree,” cried Feathertail. So all the fuss had been about nothing after all. And Squirrel Feathertail had plenty of food to last bin. I all through the winter. Kind Old Gentleman: Why are you crying, mv boy; have you lost you - , self?” “No, sir,’ replied the boy, l»* - tween sobs. “I’m all right: it’s nyi home I’ve lost. I —Sent in by Rive Mackie.