The Tale of Rumford and Pipidou

Once upon a time, deep in the tall tall forest, there lived two squirrels. One was a very dutiful squirrel who always stayed busy all the day long, cleaning out her tree house, gathering new pine needles for her comfortable nest and most of all, selecting tasty nuts and juicy berries to store for the long, cold winter that almost always surely comes.

Her name was Pipidou.

The other squirrel living in the forest was a mischievous little creature who only liked to play.

His name was Rumford.

Rumford, cute as he was, never did any work. Why, even when all the other furry animals were busy getting ready for winter, this little squirrel could be found rolling around on the forest floor chasing his fuzzy tail, racing up and down the trunks of the tall tall trees, or playing the favorite of all squirrel games - bang-nut, which he played all day long. It was enough exercise for the other creatures of the forest to just sit and watch Rumford playing by himself. Never never did this little squirrel collect the tasty nuts and juicy berries to store away for the long cold winter that - well you know the rest.

After some time had passed, the long warm summer days ended, the air cooled, and some of the trees in the forest suddenly burst into a beautiful display of fall colors.

Since Pipidou, the good and dutiful squirrel, worked every day, there was time now and then for a hop through the forest to see the beautiful leaves flipping and flopping and floating from the trees in reds and greens and golds. She even found some that had all three colors on the same leaf.

As she hopped along, Pipidou suddenly came across a bouncing, rolling brown acorn quickly followed by a fuzzy gray blur. "Whoops!" she shrieked, jumping out of the way.

"Hi!" said Rumford, shaking the dirt off his coat. "Wanna come play with me?"

Pipidou said nothing, but blinked...twice.

"C'mon," he said. "We can bounce this old acorn between us, or else we can play two-squirrel bang-nut."

"Bang-nut indeed," said Pipidou, then sneezed from all the dust in the air. "Acorns are not toys to be played with; acorns are food. You should be storing them away. Your nest should be full of nuts and berries by now. Come," she said, I'll show you where there are still some tasty blueberries hidden down by the creek bed."

"But the sky is so clear today and the air is so fresh," he said, "and look there, and there; lots of nuts just lying around. We can do it later," said little Rumford.

"Mark my words," said Pipidou with a shake of her paw, "either you stop playing so much or - or no good will come of it," and she hopped away, collecting more nuts along the path, including the brown acorn that had been rolled along by Rumford.

But Rumford didn't care. He just continued playing with other acorns he found under the bushes, knocking them one against the other, shouting "BANG! BANG!"

Before too long had passed, the long cold nights of winter began.

Pipidou, who had built a beautiful nest for herself in the hole of the big oak tree, felt warm and toasty against the chill of the forest winter air. There were piles of acorns to eat and berries of several kinds with which she could make soups or pies - or enjoy just as they were - and lots of other interesting and curious things that she had picked up on the forest floor during her afternoon hops.

Rumford, the foolish squirrel, continued scampering madly through the chilly forest days chasing young birds, fluttery moths and other small creatures.

Not many days later, the skies turned a dark gray and...soon...it started to snow; first just a bit, and then more, and more, and more, and...more until the entire forest was blanketed in a thick layer of white.

One stormy, blizzardy winter night Pipidou heard something on the limb outside her hole. Rap rap rap. Someone was knocking. "Wh - who- who's there?" she asked, a little frightened because she wasn't expecting anyone to come calling at this time of the year.

"It's m-m-m-me," said a shivery squeeky voice, "the squ-squ-squ-squirrel you met in the forest who asked you to p-p-p-p-p-play."

And Pipidou quickly let him in because it was so cold outside. Indeed, once he was inside, she could see that the poor little creature was blue with cold.

"There-there- there's no food," chattered Rumford with a shiver. "All the snow has c-c-covered it up. My straw nest fell down when a b-b-b-big bird dropped snow on it. I'll starve to death."

"Didn't I tell you?" said Pipidou. "You should have been collecting nuts and berries and taking care of business during those warm months when fixing up and collecting was easy. What a foolish and thoughtless squirrel you have been."

"Oh, yes," cried Rumford, the foolish (and unwise) squirrel. "You were so right. I was a v-v-very silly and thoughtless squirrel. Oh my, what is to become of m-m-me?"

"Yes you were," she said," and you should face the terrible penalty for your actions, having been so lazy and thoughtless.

"But," continued Pipidou, whose eyes softened as she took pity on Rumford. I have extra nuts stored away for just such an emergency as this, and you may stay here with me."

"Oh thank you, thank you," he cried. "I'll-I'll help clean up your home and gather fresh needles for the -"

"Never mind that," Pipidou interrupted sternly, "I've already seen to those duties. But you must promise me one thing, and that one thing is that you must never ever ever play when you should be working, and that during the summer months you'll always remember to gather nuts and food for the winter."

"I promise," pledged Rumford.

And do you know what? Rumford kept his promise to Pipidou and never never ever failed to take care of things that had to be done when they had to be done, and most important, never never ever failed to gather plenty of tasty nuts and juicy berries for the long cold winter that almost always surely comes.

The End