The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes

This is another story about a squirrel. Do you remember Squirrel Nutkin? Well this story is about Timmy Tiptoes and his wife Goody, and it was first published in 1911. Because winter was quickly approaching, Goody and Timmy Tiptoes go out to quietly collect nuts. They spend many days collecting nuts and hide them in their nest in the hollow of a tree. When their hollow is full Timmy decides to put them in a hole high up in a tree. As the nuts travel down the inside Goody asks Timmy how he intends to get the nuts come spring. Timmy assures his wife that he will be much thinner in the spring and so crawling into the hole to get the nuts will not be a problem.
Then one day Silvertail, the most forgetful squirrel of all, could not find the nuts that he had hidden in the ground. He riles up the other squirrels and chase our friend Timmy Tiptoes into the very hole where he had hidden his nuts. The squirrels all thought that Timmy and Goody had taken all their nuts, which we know they had not. The hole was much too small for Timmy but they squeeze him through anyway.

Goody of course was extremely worried about her husband. She waited for him and after he didn’t come home she decided to look for him the next day. Meanwhile, a chipmunk finds Timmy and takes care of him, feeding him nuts. But Timmy got fatter, and he needed to get thinner so that he could escape through the hole!

Although Goody was distressed about her missing husband, she goes out to gather nuts without him. While hiding nuts she happens upon a female chipmunk who tells her that her husband is gone, though she knows where he is. Goody follows her to the tree hole where Goody and the female chipmunk hear two squirellish voices. Goody recognizes the voice of her husband and although Timmy wants to come out he cannot because he is too fat. But luckily one day a gust of wind came and blew off the top of the tree so that Timmy Tiptoes was able to escape.

And to this day, our squirrel couple keeps their nuts in a special closet in their home, so as to avoid any more conflict. And what happened to the chipmunk couple. Well the male chipmunk only returned when he was threatened by a bear and a terrible cold befell him.