The Squirrel Who Couldn�t Climb Trees

This story was meant to be strictly a children's story so it may seem to be written at a low level of intelligence.

 

        Once upon a time, there was a squirrel named Mezorb. He was a very happy squirrel who lived in the Merry Forest. But there was one problem which made Mezorb very sad. He just couldn’t climb trees. So instead of climbing high and getting the best acorns, he could only get the bad ones that fell to the ground. 

        Every day at lunch, all of his squirrel friends would climb high up and get the fresh acorns while Mezorb was laughed at and had to scrounge for acorns that had fallen to the ground. One day he became so upset with constantly being laughed at that he ran far across the field, through the forest and to the edge of a pond.  Once there Mezorb began to cry.   As he was sitting on the edge of the pond and crying, a wise old turtle poked his head up out of the water and asked Mezorb “Why are you so upset little squirrel?“   So Mezorb told the turtle about not being able to climb trees and how all the other squirrels laughed at him.  The turtle then told Mezorb that he too used to get picked on by the other turtles when he was little because he couldn’t swim.  He told Mezorb what his wise old granny told  him, “practice makes perfect.”  He told Mezorb how he practiced swimming every day until he was as good as the other turtles his age.  Mezorb thought about what the turtle said to him as he fell asleep near the edge of the pond.

        The next morning Mezorb went back to his family and decided that he would practice tree climbing every day until he was as good as all his squirrel friends, no matter how long it took. All the other squirrels would gather around an laugh at him while he was practicing, they enjoyed watching him fall to the ground time and time again. Mezorb, however, was not about to quit.  

        Spring turned to summer and while Mezorb longingly watched as all of his friends were swimming, he continued practicing his tree climbing. Summer turned to fall and while his friends were playing football and getting ready for a new school year to start, Mezorb continued practicing. Then winter came. All his friends would be having snowball fights and drinking hot chocolate and Mezorb would still be climbing and falling from the tree. He was really close but couldn’t quite get to the best acorns yet. Finally, spring came around again. Mezorb had been practicing climbing the tree to the very best acorns everyday for a year.

         The snow had melted and the flowers were in full blossom. The first, and best, acorns of the year were on the branches at the very top of the tree. After laughing at Mezorb for the first month of practicing, the other squirrels got bored with watching him fall,  so no one knew how good he had really gotten or how high he could now climb. 

        Mezorb called all of his friends, family, teachers to watch him climb the tree. As he was about to climb the tree, he could hear some of his classmates snickering saying that he couldn’t do it. He thought to himself, “I’m going to prove them wrong. I AM going to climb that tree and get a fresh new acorn.”  He jumped up and went to climb but was so nervous that he fell to the ground before he even got to the first branch. Everyone burst out laughing and was about to leave. But Mezorb got back up on his feet, yelled at the spectators to stay, and tried again. 

        This time, he gritted his teeth, blocked out all the snickering and jumped onto the tree. This time, he not only scurried up the trunk of the tree but climbed up to the very top branches and gathered some fresh new acorns.  Mezorb had done it! Everyone was clapping and applauding for him. As a reward, they let him collect all of the new acorns on the highest branches. Mezorb was so proud of himself. The turtle was right, no matter how hard something appears to be, if you practice, and don’t give up, you can get good at anything.