March 27, 1986 - Squeaky's Easter TaleSecond Section/ The Suffolk Times' Page 1A
March 27, 1986
Squeaky's Easter Tale
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
Squeaky, as you remember, lived in
an old woodshed just outside the home
where a small girl and her two brothers
lived. All winter long Squeaky slept in
his little nest of leaves in the woodshed
because it was too cold to do much else
outside.
His little nest was made up of many
things to keep it warm. There were lit-
tle pieces of a brown paper bag that had
once held some of the children's toys.
Best of all, there were a lot of little
pieces of wool from an old pair of gloves
that the children's father had left in the
woodshed after chopping wood one day.
Squeaky had run back and forth all
night long taking mouthfuls of wool
from the old gloves to his nest. He lined
the whole inside of his nest with this
wool to keep out the cold. Curled up
inside in a tight little ball, he slept com-
fortably through the long winter days
and nights.
Once in a while, when it warmed up
a bit, he'd go out and scurry around to
find some food. He was always hungry
between his long sleeps.
In one part of the woodshed he had a
special spot where he kept his supply
of cherry pits and hickory nuts. These
he gathered in the fall and stored for
winter's use. They kept well in their
hard woody shells -- they were just like
cans and jars the people in the big house
kept their food in. The only difference
was that Squeaky had to chew through
the hard nut shell with his sharp front
teeth to get at the delicious food inside.
There were little piles of sawdust all
around his storage area where he had
chewed at the shells, and a little heap
of empty shells.
As the winter went on Squeaky could
tell spring was coming because it was
getting warmer and warmer in his
wool -lined nest. He no longer had to
keep tightly curled up, and he'd often
stretch out to cool off. He would go out
and look around, and he could tell the
days were getting longer. He even found
some green shoots popping up through
the forest floor, which he nibbled right
off and ate. It was good to get some nice
fresh greens for supper. He hadn't had
any all winter long.
Squeaky also noticed that the big
man who used to get wood two or three
times a day only came once a day now.
He wondered why. There must be a
reason he was using less wood in the
stove. He thought and thought and sure
enough, it must be because it was get-
Focus on
Nature
ting warmer. It must be getting near
springtime.
That's probably why he heard the
children outside playing more now.
He'd heard them running by the
woodshed to feed the chickens. It was
always a race to see who could get there
first to open the feed barrel and throw
out the corn. Seems chickens are always
hungry and when they saw the children
head for the barn, they knew it was time
for food and they'd run along behind
them.
Children Find Easter Eggs'
One day Squeaky knew there was
something special going on. The chil-
dren were outside looking all over the
yard and in the woods for something.
They looked under the cows' old water
pail. They looked under the old boat
that was turned over in the yard. They
looked behind the garbage pail. They
checked every place where something
could be hidden.
Every once in a while there would be
a loud scream -- "Here's one!" -- and the
other two children would run over to
see the treasure, a beautiful colored
Easter egg. Squeaky had seen regular
eggs when he was climbing around in
the hen house, but never had he seen
anything like the beautiful colored eggs
the children were finding today. They
were all colors: yellow, blue, red, green,
orange and purple. "My, but those are
handsome looking eggs!" thought
Squeaky.
Once the little girl came into the
woodshed and Squeaky got scared and
ran inside to his favorite hideout. He
could tell the girl was looking for some-
thing -- she kept moving one log after
another. He had to see, so he peeked
around the corner to get a closer look.
He had never seen the little girl so
dressed up. She must be going some-
place special, dressed up so fancy in a
pretty pink dress with white ruffles and
a rew hat that looked like it just came
from the store. This day must be a spec-
ial one.
`Who Put It There?'
She moved another log, and there was
a beautiful big yellow Easter egg! "How
did that get there ?" Squeaky asked him-
self He knew the woodshed like the
palm of his paw, and there was no egg_
there yesterday. "Somebody must have
put it there during the night when I
was sleeping," he thought. "Who could
it be ?"
The little girl was so excited she
jumped around and the pretty basket
she was carrying spilled over and a lit-
tle football- shaped colored candy fell
out. It rolled down the log, fell in and
was lost.
No matter. She had a new egg to add
to her basket collection and she had to
go find more. There were still all sorts
of places to look; in the stable, maybe
in the manger and even where the
chickens laid their eggs. She ran to
catch up with her brothers in the barn.
Squeaky could hear the children run-
ning around, giving a yell each time
they found a new egg. When it grew
quiet, Squeaky came out from his favor-
ite hiding spot and looked around. The
sun was out and it was much warmer
than usual.
Then his nose started to wiggle. He
smelled something. He turned toward
where the little girl had set her basket
down. His nose wiggled some more, his
whiskers moved up and down and his
big black eyes winked. He smelled
something he had never smelled before.
The little girl called them jelly beans
and the one that fell out of the basket
is the one he must be smelling. Quickly
iburgh
he scampered down and wiggled
through the passage between logs to
where the jelly bean had fallen. He had
never smelled anything quite like it in
his life before. There it was, a beautiful
big red jelly bean. he picked it up, snif-
fed it and with his little tongue he licked
it. Was that good! He couldn't re-
member having anything like that be-
fore except that time -- he thought it
was Christmas -- when he had some
peanut butter the kids had brought out
and left for him. He wouldn't-eat it right
now. He'd take it back to his nest.
Back in his cozy nest Squeaky put
the jelly bean down and stared at it. It
was so shiny and bright and smelled
and tasted so good. He had to eat it.
All this commotion got Squeaky to
thinking that this day must be some-
thing special, the kids were all dressed
up and each had a pretty basket they
were carrying with those pretty colored
eggs in them. Somebody must have left
them here. He heard the children talk-
ing about Easter bunnies as they played
in the yard. Yes, it was a special day.
It was Easter.
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