The tree listened to the stories they told of the good times they had together.

The birds flew to its branches and talked to each other about the things they had seen in the woods.

Bobby Gray Squirrel and his brothers often ran up into the pine tree to play tag.

But Sammy Red Squirrel knew something about this tree that no one else knew.

He knew where there was a small hole in one of the branches.

He found it one day when he ran up into the tree to eat a nut.

And when he saw the hole he said to himself, “That is a good place to hide some nuts for the winter.”

The hole was not very large, but Sammy hid ten acorns in it.  He packed them in one by one.

Last of all he put a piece of bark in the hole.

“This is a good door for my store-house,” he said, “I am sure no one will find these acorns.”

And no one did find them.

Sammy ran to the hole very often and lifted the door just a crack.

The ten little acorns were just where he had put them.

“I will eat these nuts last of all,” he said to himself.

All through the fall the little red squirrel hunted for nuts under the trees.

Sometimes he could not find any on the ground.

Then he would run round and round hunting for holes where he had hidden acorns away.

If the holes were empty Sammy knew some other little squirrel had been there before him.

And sometimes Sammy found nuts that other squirrels had stored away.

The hunting was always good, and no squirrel ever went to bed hungry.

But at last Jack Frost came and covered everything with snow.

All the nuts and acorns were frozen into the ground so the squirrels could not dig them out.

[Illustration:  The squirrel hunted for nuts.]

Then Sammy went to his store-house in the stone wall or in some old stump.

At last it became very cold.

North Wind blew through the woods.

The water in the little brook was covered with ice.

The birds tried to keep warm among the branches of the evergreen trees.

The rabbits slept in their warm home and did not come out very often.

The squirrels slept in their nests, and did not come out for days and days.

Blacky Crow stayed in the deep woods where the largest trees helped to keep him warm.

The ground had been covered with snow for two or three weeks.

And the squirrels and rabbits had taken long, long naps.

II

A few days before Christmas, Mr. Sun came up from behind the hills and shone brightly all day long.

He melted the snow in the warm hollows, and softened the ice on the brooks.

Bunny Rabbit and his brothers came out and hopped around to find roots to eat.