Squirrels And The Mango Tree

The mango tree in front of the house where Tuli, a six-year-old little girl lived, was very big, with many strong branches having shiny green leaves. On those branches, hidden behind the leaves, different kinds of birds would be building their nests. Every now and then Tuli could hear sounds of new-born little birds from the tree.

 

One branch of the tree was long enough to reach the balcony on the second floor of Tuli's house. After coming back from school, Tuli would often stand in the balcony, observing the black ants crawling in a line along that branch, or colorful beetles flying around and resting on the leaves while listening to the chirping of birds returning home after a day's hard work with food for their young ones in the nests.

 

During her summer vacation, she would often try to reach out and pluck mangoes off that branch, and other branches around. Ripe mangoes would also be lying under the tree in the garden, which she would often go around and pick up.

 

One day, after school, Tuli was standing in the balcony, enjoying the view of the flowers of the mangoes, which look like small balls, reddish-green in color. Suddenly she started hearing the chirping of a new kind, that she had never heard before.

 

“Hmmm..may be some new bird!” she thought, trying to look around and find what kind of bird it was.

“Sounds like a very small, sweet bird,” she thought, as the sound was not at all loud, and was shrill yet soft. Unable to see the bird, she left some small peanuts for the bird to come and eat, in the balcony.

The next morning, she found some of the nuts had been eaten, and some skin of the nuts had been peeled off and were lying around.

“That means some birds came and ate the nuts!” Tuli thought and smiled, “I hope it’s the new birds.”

She took out some more peanuts and placed them there.

“Today, I’ll keep an eye on which birds are coming to eat,” she planned, “ but I’ll hide and see from a corner, as otherwise they may be scared away.

After several hours, around the afternoon, she heard those chirping sounds coming from the balcony. She ran towards the balcony and hid behind the curtains to see. To her surprise, she saw a pair of squirrels, making those sounds, and climbing along the mango tree branch to reach the balcony.

Tuli saw, that the squirrels, with black and white stripes on their body and a large, beautiful furry tail, first checked if anyone was watching them. Then they ran up to the place where nuts had been kept.

They picked up nuts one by one with their front legs, that looked like tiny hands, removed the skins and ate the nuts.

After having a few nuts, they made that chirping sound again and left.

 

Delighted on seeing them, Tuli put more nuts next day, along with some seeds, and hid again to wait for the squirrels. They again came around the afternoon. This time, one squirrel looked up while having the peanuts, and caught sight of Tuli who was smiling and looking at them from behind the curtain. Afraid, that she would scare them away, Tuli quickly hid back completely. After a few moments, she tiptoed back and peeped out from behind the curtain, only to see the squirrels still eating the nuts.

 

Confident, that the squirrels weren’t scared, she slowly walked up to the balcony and sat down beside them. The squirrels looked up at her and smiled.

 

“Hello, I am Tuli. I hope you liked the peanuts,” she said, offering her hand out for a handshake.

Both the squirrels lent out their tiny hands to her and they shook hands.

 

“You sound very sweet. I also like your button-like eyes and your fluffy tails. I think you both are the Mummy and Papa squirrels. And you also have a home in the mango tree just like the birds do! Once you have a baby squirrel, please come and take extra food from me. I will also start keeping berries too along with nuts and seeds,” Tuli told them.

Hearing her, the squirrels stood up on their hind legs in delight, looked at each other and smiled. They folded their front-arms and clapped to thank Tuli. They both ran along with her hands, one on right and the other on left until the reached her shoulder. Putting a peck one on each of Tuli’s cheeks, they chirped and jumped on to the mango treen branch.

Turning back, they waved goodbye to Tuli, held each other’s hands and ran swiftly along the branch off into the thick mango tree leaves.