A squirrel scampered through the wood
till it beneath a great oak stood,
and where that squirrel stood it found
some acorns scattered on the ground.
When he had nibbled three or four,
he gathered up some more to store
and scurried off with work's reward
so he could bury treasured hoard.
As seasons passed most seeds he ate,
but some nuts found another fate,
for when he sought each secret spot,
one place or two he'd quite forgot.
This squirrel scrambled hard to seek
each acorn he had worked to keep,
but nature on him played a joke
and from lost kernels grew an oak.
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Author Notes
Oak trees grow from acorns, but acorns are too heavy to disperse in the wind, and they can't grow under the shady canopy of the parent tree. They need to be at least a couple dozen yards from the parent tree to sprout, and the main way they get there is from creatures such as the squirrel who carry them away and bury them for future feasts. Squirrels are provided with an excellent ability to find most of the food they bury, but nobody is perfect, and when they fail to retrieve a hidden acorn, the world benefits when another majestic oak starts to grow.
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