Toothy, the squirrel had been searching for nuts and goodies all summer. He always hosted a grand Christmas party. He made sure that all his friends who attended would remember his party at Oaky Grand and wait for the next X-Mas to come again. Oaky was a very old oak tree where all his friends came together every evening for a round of chitter-chatter. Many of his brothers and sisters were born on one of Oaky’s branches and Toothy also lived in one of its holes in the trunks. His friends – Patsy, the partridge, Evy the eagle, Crocky the crow, Tooty-Toot the wise owl and Plonk the pigeon lived in the neighbouring trees. Toothy would twitch his tail and run off to visit many of his friends on them whenever he got bored.
This winter was different. A gust of wind changed their lives. The beautiful forest had miles and miles of a variety of trees. But one fine morning Toothy woke up to the noise of whrooming saws, cutting down tree after tree. All his friends came running to Toothy.
“Hello, my friends!” said Toothy. “You all can share this tree with me. But we must stop these saw- men. How can we do that?”
“Twit-Twoo! Twit-Twoo!” hooted the wise owl. “We can all try to drive out these saw-men together.”
Lo! All the friends swarmed over the saw-men who had already cut down half the forest. They scared them with ghostlike shrieks and hoots. The saw-men ran away so scared that they never cared to look back. Thankfully, Oaky was saved.
Toothy looked worried as only two days were left for Christmas. He didn’t have enough goodies this winter. He had even remained hungry at times to save up for Christmas. He sat on one of Oaky’s trunks thinking, “Where shall I get more nuts and goodies. It’s already winter and the snow has already covered everything.”
Two days went by. Toothy woke up on Christmas morning to the twittering and chattering of his friends. He shook his tail and ran down the tree. He was welcomed with a cheerful and loud “Merry X-Mas, dear Toothy!!!” What did he see! A grand party was laid out on the grass near Oaky. The tree was covered with buntings and bell flowers. Oaky had a big smile on his face.
“I have been flying around collecting all the goodies I could find. I hid them on the top branch of Oaky.”Evy said. “I brought all the nuts by flying to the city nearby,” said Plonk. Each one of his friends had been saving for this party, they said. “We didn’t want you to be disappointed on Christmas. So we thought of giving you a surprise. Merry Christmas!!!” The little squirrel, close to tears said, “I knew I had the best friends in the world. Merry Christmas!!!”
—