Oliver and the Great Acorn Theft

Standing tall and important looking in Farmer Pickeral’s largest pasture was Oliver. Oliver was an oak tree – the most majestic tree that anyone had ever seen. His branches reached out and up so high that you would have to go up in an airplane to see his top! Oliver was surrounded by many of his children who had grown from tiny acorn seedlings that would soon become oak trees. Because he was so generous, Oliver also dropped enough acorn seeds each year to feed many of the surrounding animals, especially the squirrels and chipmunks. He also offered his great branches and trunk as a home for many animals and birds. Even farmer Pickeral’s large farm yard animals used Oliver’s rough bark to rub against when they needed to scratch their itchy parts. Oliver’s full leafy branches provided the animals with protection from the summer sun and rain and served as a warm companion throughout the snow and wind of the long, cold winter seasons. Oliver was a regular neighborhood. Bert and Bertie Crow nested each year in Oliver’s high branches. Fall and winter birds nested in him, giving way in the spring to summer bird families. Oliver was especially popular with the blue bird clan who seemed to arrive in large numbers right around the fall harvest of acorns. Sammy the Owl lived on a branch about half way up the tree and Lottie and Leonard Squirrel and their large family shared a nest just a few branches away. Wilbur Possum had lived in Oliver all of his life and liked to hang upside down by his tail in the tree thinking and pondering about this and that. Hilda queen bee and her very busy hive occupied a hollow part of the tree closer to the bottom. Other neighbors were Sammy Tree Frog who was a quiet fellow until the sun went down and then he began his very noisy, croaking serenade and Carl and Clara Chipmunk and their children shared the deep holes in and around Oliver’s huge root system.