PeeWee's Tale Read Free

PeeWee,” I told him when he landed on the ground beside me. “I’m a guinea pig. What are you?”
    I’m a squirrel,” the creature said proudly ashe scratched himself with one of his rear legs, “My name is Lexington. But you can call me Lexi.”
    â€œWhere are we?” I asked my new friend.
    â€œWe’re near Seventy-third Street in the borough of Manhattan, which is in New York City,” Lexi told me. “And I was named after one of its avenues. I have brothers named Amsterdam, Columbus, and Madison.”
    â€œI belong to a boy named Robbie,” I explained to Lexi. “But I don’t know where his is.”
    â€œIt’s better to travel alone,” the squirrel replied. “I have many, many brothers and sisters and cousins, but I belong to no one. In fact, there are so many in my family that most just have numbers, like the streets of Manhattan. Sometimes we chatter to oneanother as we run up and down the trees. But we’re all so busy looking for food and watching for dangers that we have no time for real conversations.”
    â€œWell, I’m glad you’re talking to me,” I said. “Robbie’s father brought me here last night. But I need to find my way back home to Robbie. You haven’t seen a young boy with spots on his face that are called freckles? He has a chipped front tooth too. He would have been looking for me.”
    â€œNo,” Lexi admitted. “But I’ll climb to the top of my tree and take a look.”
    I watched him as he scampered up the structure that I now knew was called a tree. He ran so quickly, jumping from branch to branch, that I grew dizzy, and my eyes could scarcely follow his path.
    â€œI see a boy with red hair,” Lexi called down to me. “Does that sound like your Robbie?”
    â€œNope,” I said. “Robbie’s hair is dark brown.”
    â€œThere’s another boy walking a dog,” Lexi reported as he came running down the tree toward me.
    â€œThat can’t be Robbie. He doesn’t have a dog.” I sighed with disappointment.
    â€œWell, here. Take this. Maybe it will cheer you up,” Lexi said, dropping something from his mouth. It rested at my feet. “Don’t ever say I never gave you anything.”
    â€œWhat is this?” I asked, looking at a round, hard object.
    â€œDidn’t you ever see a nut?” asked Lexi, scratching himself again. “They’re delicious. I keep a big supply hidden inside a hole in this tree.”
    I moved closer to the object, but before I could attempt to eat it, Lexi stopped me. “Whatever you do, don’t forget:
Look before you eat
. It’s one of the first things my mother taught me,” he said.
    I looked around me and then licked the object, but there was no taste.
    â€œBite it. Break the shell,” said Lexi. He seemed amazed at my stupidity, but of course, I’d never seen a nut before.
    My teeth, which were strong enough to chew the little pellets Robbie gave me, couldn’t pierce the shell.
    â€œLook,” Lexi instructed. He picked up the nut in his paws and almost immediately I could hear a cracking sound as his teeth made a hole in the hard shell.
    â€œNow taste,” he said.

    I bit into the soft center of the nut, and Lexi was right. It was delicious, but I didn’t have much time to enjoy it.
    â€œWatch out!” screeched Lexi suddenly, racing up the tree.
    Coming toward me was an enormous dog. He ran faster than Lexi, and even from a distance, I could see that his teeth were very, very large.
    â€œClimb the tree!” Lexi shouted down to me.
    I scampered to the tree but my paws could not hold on to its rough surface. I scratched and scratched at the sides and finally got an inch off the ground. But right away, I slipped, and landed where I had begun.
    The animal’s barking grew louder and louder. It was almost upon me. I closed my eyes and