One fine summer day in the hollow of a big oak tree, Bob the squirrel was lounging about on his nut couch. \u201cBob, why don\u2019t you go looking for some nuts to eat for supper?\u201d said Mrs. Bushy Tail in her high squeaky voice.
\u201cNo, I am going to sit here,\u201d he replied lazily.
\u201cAll your siblings are out there looking; why can\u2019t you?\u201d
Bob groaned and sat up. He trudged over to the hollow opening and promptly fell out. Bob landed on his tail and hurried over to where his twenty-three brothers and sisters were gathering acorns.
\u201cWhy do you always have to fall out of the tree when you go outside?\u201d said his little brother Frank. The rest of his siblings screeched in agreement.
\u201cIt\u2019s fun,\u201d Bob said frankly.
\u201cHey, stop using my name as an adverb,\u201d Frank said, annoyed. \u201cIt\u2019s a proper noun!\u201d
Bob sighed, \u201cI\u2019ve explained this before Frank: I didn\u2019t actually say frankly out loud, I said it in my head!\u201d
\u201cOh yeah, I forgot.\u201d
As the day progressed, Bob started to get board. He decided to start a game. He would see how many acorns he could sneakily eat without getting caught. No one was looking, so he stuffed forty-two acorns in his mouth, chewed quickly, and swallowed. Bob had won the family competition for quickest eating of four-hundred acorns. Bob had done it in twelve point three two seconds. Soon Bob was very full and the acorn supply started to noticeably dwindle.
\u201cWhat happened to all the nuts we spent hours collecting?\u201d Meg said concerned and angry.
\u201cI am going to take a walk over to the road and see if I can find more acorns over there.\u201d Bob said, inching away from his suspicious siblings.
\u201cYou know you\u2019re not allowed to go near the road!\u201d Ted squeaked, \u201cMother doesn\u2019t trust all those cars to slow down for us!\u201d
\u201cI\u2019ll be fine, don\u2019t boss me around!\u201d And off went Bob, skipping along. His mother would never venture to find him there, she feared the road. So Bob got out of a punishment once again, or so he thought. He reached the road with many cars zooming past. Bob looked back to see Frank scurrying toward him.
\u201cBob, wait for me!\u201d Frank called, \u201ccan you teach me to eat so quickly? If I knew, I could have more free time with you while the others eat! Let me come! Why are you running away? I want to come!\u201d
Bob ran. There was no way he was going to let Frank tag along everywhere. Into the
road Bob went. He dodged a car as it zoomed past. He was almost to the other side when an agonizing pain in his rear made him stop. He turned around. There on the ground behind him was his beautiful tail. Tears flooded Bobs eyes. Here came another car. He dashed to the other side just in time. The pain was overwhelming. Bob limped back to the other side of the road and back home.
\u201cMom!\u201d Bob hefted himself into the tree hollow he called his home. Bob\u2019s mother rushed over to him,
\u201cWhat happened to your tail!!!\u201d She asked in a high frightened way,
\u201cA car bit it off!\u201d
\u201cAre you okay? Does it hurt? I told you not to go over to the road!\u201d
\u201cI\u2019m sorry. I ate a lot of the nuts everyone collected, and they were all getting suspicious of me, so I left.\u201d Bob explained after he was nicely settled in his nut couch with an acorn top blanket
\u201cWhy to the road?\u201d She asked confused,
\u201cI knew you wouldn\u2019t permit anyone to follow me there, so there I was safe.\u201d
\u201cYou\u2019re still in big trouble. You will be on nut duty for the rest of the year.\u201d
\u201cTHE REST OF THE YEAR!\u201d
\u201cYes. Maybe next time you will think twice before you eat up all of our nuts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bob fell out of the tree. But this time he didn\u2019t have his tail, and he fell face flat on the ground.
\u201cSeriously? Ug.\u201d Bob ran away, he went to his secret stash of nuts and gave himself a treat. Then Bob had an idea. \u201cI\u2019ll make Frank do it and I\u2019ll tell Frank how to eat nuts quickly!\u201d Bob giggled and went over to Frank who was running around with Tom, Frank and Bob\u2019s younger brother.
\u201cFrank! Come over here!\u201d
\u201cComing!\u201d Frank rushed over to Bob, \u201cWhat do you want?\u201d
\u201cDo you want to learn how to eat nuts quickly?\u201d
\u201cYES! I have been waiting for this moment for a long time!\u201d
\u201cFor just a small price you can learn.\u201d
\u201cWhat price?\u201d Frank asked skeptically.
\u201cJust gather the nuts we will need.\u201d
\u201cI\u2019ll do it Bob.\u201d Frank said in a determined voice, \u201cWhen do we start?\u201d
\u201cToday, start gathering all the nuts you can find,
\u201cOkay!\u201d And Frank rushed off to do as his brother had asked.
\u201cWonderful! Now all I have to endure is ten minutes a day of Frank stuffing food in his mouth. Just give him a few pointers, and, tada! Lesson complete!\u201d Bob skipped off to have another snack.
Two hours later, Frank had come to Bob\u2019s room in the big oak tree carrying twenty bulging sacks of nuts. \u201cHelp me!\u201d Frank gasped for breath as Frank lifted two of the bags off of Frank.
\u201cGood, you found the nuts!\u201d
\u201cYeah, I found a big acorn tree over that way!\u201d Frank pointed south, \u201cCan we get started?\u201d
\u201cSure, let\u2019s put the nuts over here.\u201d Bob gestured to a huge barrel by his bed.
\u201cOkay. What do we do first?\u201d Frank heaved the bags into the barrel.
\u201cLet\u2019s do a test to see how fast you are.\u201d
\u201cOkay!\u201d And Frank stuffed two nuts in his mouth and chewed, crumbs flying, and swallowed, then he grabbed two more and continued.
\u201cHold on!\u201d Bob projected, Frank stopped, hands halfway to his mouth.
\u201cWhat?\u201d Frank whispered, mouth full.
\u201cYou have to chew quietly and eat fast! Lesson complete.\u201d
\u201cWhat?\u201d
\u201cYou may leave now.\u201d
\u201cOh,\u201d Frank shrugged and walked out of the room.
\u201cBob? Where are my nuts?\u201d Bob\u2019s mother called from the kitchen,
\u201cIn here.\u201d Bob called back. His mother walked into the his room,
\u201cBob, I told you to find me nuts for supper.\u201d Her eyes scanned the room, \u201cOh! You did!\u201d
\u201cYep.\u201d
\u201cWhere\u2019s you find them all!\u201d
\u201cThey were found by big acorn tree that way.\u201d He pointed south,
\u201cBut I saw you inside all for the past few hours!\u201d
\u201cI never said I found them.\u201d Bob said hastily, regretting it a second later,
\u201cYou didn\u2019t find the?\u201d
\u201cNo.\u201d
\u201cWho did then?\u201d
\u201cFrank,\u201d Bob confessed, \u201cI told him I would give him lessons on how to eat fast.\u201d
\u201cAs a punishment for trying to weasel out of a job, you will have to find me nuts, and give Frank as many lessons as he wants. It would do you good to spend more time with your little brother.\u201d
\u201cOkay.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One fine summer day in the hollow of a big oak tree, Bob the squirrel was lounging about on his nut couch. \u201cBob, why don\u2019t you go looking for some nuts to eat for supper?\u201d said Mrs. Bushy Tail in her high squeaky voice.\u201cNo, I am going to sit here,\u201d he replied lazily.\u201cAll your siblings […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":234,"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maddie.fongspot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}