Creeping all alone one morning through the bushes, as quietly as a mouse, Tom came upon a sight which taught him a useful lesson.  For high up in the trunk of an old tree was a big round hole with a squirrel’s tail hanging out.  Presently up ran another squirrel, carrying a great mouthful of leaves and clay.

The new-comer made a slight noise, when out came No. 1 and took the bundle from No. 2, which then darted off for more.

“Ho! ho!” said Tom to himself, “they seem to be storing up food for winter.  Heigho!  I thought it would always be summer in this fairyland.  But thank you, Master Squirrel, I shall go and do the same.”  So off went Tom to tell Frank and the girls what he had seen the squirrels doing.

“As there is no sign of the ship coming back for us, children,” he said somewhat seriously, “and we may have to spend the winter here, I think, you know, we ought to be making ready for it.”

“So do I,” said Pansy, looking very wise.  “We want food, and we want wood and all, doesn’t we, Tom?”

“It won’t be very, very cold in this island,” said her brother, “because we have the warm-water lake all round us.  But perhaps the squirrels know best.”

So now began a very busy season indeed, for everybody went nut-gathering.

Tom opened up a squirrel’s store, and a pretty noise the little creature made about it.  But he did not rob it; he only wanted to learn a lesson.

He noticed that the nuts it had collected were a little green on one side, so these must be the best.  Then he looked at the leaves and clay that were packed over them, and thought he would get some just the same.

This going a-nutting in fairyland was real fine fun, and to have heard their merry voices, talking and laughing and singing, with every now and then Briton’s great bass “Wowff!” and Veevee’s shrill “Wiff!” no one would have taken them for castaways and Crusoes.

Nutting made everyone so hungry too!

Rabbits were very plentiful on the island.  The boys caught them by means of snares made of a kind of tough creeper.  And bonny Flossy caught as many fish as would have kept a large family alive.

Tom seldom used his rifle, though he always carried it.  The cartridges were too precious to waste.

Another thing which these Crusoes had to be very careful to do was never to let the fire go out.  It was easily kept in by placing a kind of mossy peat among the hot ashes and covering it quite over.

* * * * *

So they collected an immense quantity of nuts, and these were placed in holes found in the rocks, and covered right up with the same sort of cement as the squirrels used.  The roots that served them instead of bread every day, and which were cooked by placing them for a short time in the hot ashes, they also collected and stored.  So when the harvest was all over, Tom told Frank and his sisters that they needn’t be afraid to spend their Christmas in this beautiful island.