December 23, 1993 - Little Squeaky's Scary, Merry Christmas}
December 23, 1993 • The Suffolk Times • 5A
Little Scary, S ueak 's a v Merry Christmas
By Paul Stoutenburgh that he shut his eyes as the tree swayed back and forth
Mane of yotr will remember the story of Squeaky that
appeared in this column in 1985. The following story is
true eacept.for a bit of childish imagination.
It was almost Christmas and that wonderful feeling
of joy and excitement was everywhere. It even touched
the birds and animals that lived in the woods. One par-
ticular little fellow that lived in the woods remembers
from his great - grandfather the tale of Squeaky and his
adventures many years ago. Each year all the little rela-
tives of Squeaky's great- grandfather would gather
around and listen to his Christ-
mas stories of long ago. Little
Focus on Squeaky was named after his
Mature great- grandfather and, of course,
his eyes bulged and his ears twit-
tered as he listened and won-
dered at all the marvelous tales that were told, but he
wondered why all those good things never happened to
him.
As all the little mice children sat around nibbling on
stored -up nuts, Little Squeaky became impatient and
wanted more and more to experience some of the tales
he had heard about. He decided to explore on his own
and so he took along a cherry pit that he carried in his
cheek just in case he got hungry along the way. Then
he set out to find a Christmas just like Great -
Grandfather always told about.
Most of the time he was running along through tun-
nels that had been previously made by other mice of the
community. Some were new and clean while others
were old and filled with spider webs. He didn't like
those too much, so he climbed up through one of the
openings and ran along the leaf - covered forest floor.
He was told by his mother and father never to go
exploring by himself and never above ground where a
great owl or hawk might see him, for they like to eat
little mice. But this was Christmastime and Little
Squeaky tossed those worries off and scampered about
as if he hadn't a care in the world.
What's That Smell?
At one time he thought he caught the whiff of a
strange and wonderful scent, one he'd never smelled
before in the dry oak woods where he was living. What
was it? He went back to where he started and this time
walked along with his tiny nose held high in the air in
hopes of recapturing that wonderful scent. Sure
enough, just about when he was passing an old, dead
cherry tree he caught it again. He stopped, his nose
wiggled, his whiskers twitched, and he knew he was on
it. Where was it coming from?
There was a chilly wind blowing that made Little
Squeaky pop out the cherry pit he had brought along
for a snack. Inside was a sweet kernel that made him
feel warm all over when he ate it and then he was ready
to follow that wonderful smell once again. Now he was
getting closer and closer and the scent was sweeter and
sweeter. Finally it was all about him in a new and
unknown shape that lay before him.
It was a Christmas tree someone had cut down and
left by the driveway. Little Squeaky was so excited he
could hardly contain himself. This was what Great -
Grandfather had told stories about at Christmastime. He
Photo by Barbara Stoutenburgh
DEER MOUSE --Just when this Christmas tree
was ready to be brought into the house, Little
Squeaky sat perched high on top.
ran up into it, jumping from limb to limb checking it
out. How beautiful it smelled and how green and fresh
everything was. But where were the shiny balls and
lights and tinsel that Great - Granddaddy had spoken
about? They must be somewhere.
Just about the time Little Squeaky was climbing
along the limb, bright lights came on and there was a
lot of noise and commotion nearby. A boy and his
father had a saw and tree stand in their hands and were
coming to get the tree. What was Little Squeaky to do?
Then the most awful thing happened. The tree was
picked up and moved while he was still inside. He hung
on for his life. How it shook and swayed! Would he
ever live through this? Oh, how he wished he had
stayed back at the house with all the other little mice
and not been so adventurous.
Putting the Tree Up
Pretty soon the tree was dropped and Little Squeaky
almost lost his foothold. By then he'd forgotten all
about the wonderful Christmas tree, for now he was
only concerned with his life. The father cut off some of
the trunk of the tree and then fit it on the stand with the
boy's help. "Now that should fix it," said the father as
he picked up the tree and stood it upright. "Oh my
goodness, I'm being tossed into the sky," Little
Squeaky thought. "I must hold on." He was so terrified
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with him clinging to it with all his might. Then the
whole world settled down and the swaying stopped.
"Looks pretty good," said Robby to his fathgr as they
both stood back and admired the tree. Then Robby
shouted, "Look, there's a mouse in there on the limb."
Little Squeaky's eyes had been closed as he held on for
dear life, but now with things calmed down he opened
them, only to see right before him the face of a boy
with bright eyes excited with what he was seeing.
Squeaky had never seen anything like that before in all
his life and he was terrified. He sprang from the limb
and ran as fast as he could up the tree to the tippy top.
He couldn't go any farther. He didn't know where he
was going, but he had to get away from those big,
brown eyes that were staring at him.
He found himself atop the Christmas tree in quite a
precarious position. Now others arrived. "Now let me
see him," cried sister Sara. "He's so cute." Then
Mother and Grandfather and Grandmother arrived, all
looking up and pointing fingers at Little Squeaky, who
by now was so terrified he couldn't move. "What shall
we do with him ?" Sara asked. Robby immediately
thought, "Let's capture him and keep him as a pet," but
everyone thought that was not right, particularly seeing
it was Christmastime. "We'll have to let him go," said
his father. "He's so cute, can't we just leave him in the
tree ?" asked Sara. By now the big, brown dog had
joined in the excitement and that scared Little Squeaky
all the more. "Am I going to stay here all my life ?" he
thought. "Put the dog in the house," said the father,
"and we'll lower the tree down so the mouse can run
off into the - woods."
Back Home Again
So it was that Little Squeaky was able to jump off the
tree and run as fast as he could through the woods back
to his home. By then everyone had left the storytelling
hour and only Great - Grandfather Squeaky was left, all
curled up in his favorite spot, fast asleep.
The next day was Christmas and the little mice were
exchanging gifts. Little
Squeaky received two hicko- `He set out to
ry nuts and a huge walnut
from his father and mother. find a Christmas
The walnut was almost the just like Great -
size of him. Wouldn't that be
fun to eat? Everyone was Grandfather
exchanging presents of one always told
sort or another. When things
slowed down Little Squeaky about.'
thought it would be fun to see
what that Christmas tree looked like in the big house
next to the woods, and so he retraced his trail through
the woods to where the tree was. Then he climbed up
the side of the house and looked in through the win-
dow.
There was the tree, all sparkling and glowing with
colored lights, Christmas balls and ornaments and tin-
sel. He could even smell a wee bit of the evergreen that
snuck out between the window andthe sill. So this was
Christmas that Great - Granddaddy Squeaky had told
about years ago. Little Squeaky was so full of
Christmas joy he just had to squeak it out: "Merry
Christmas to all and to all a good night."
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