In a beautiful forest, where the wide, leafy trees seemed to reach all the way up to the sky and the flowers in the meadows bloomed in every color you could imagine, there lived a little squirrel named Lena. Her rusty-red fur and big dark eyes melted the heart of every visitor who walked through the woods. People often fed her all kinds of treats, so Lena never really had to worry about finding food on her own. Taking snacks from humans was a lot easier than going out and gathering them herself. And so, little by little, Lena became completely lazy.
While her squirrel friends worked hard, stuffing their trees and burrows with food for the winter, Lena preferred to play, nap, and wait for visitors to show up with something tasty.
“Lena, you really should start storing food. Winter will be here soon,” her squirrel friends warned her.
“Oh, come on, winter is ages away. Today I’m going to relax, and tomorrow… well, I’ll think about it tomorrow,” Lena answered.
Summer slowly began to turn into fall. The trees dressed themselves in warm shades of orange, red, and gold. The forest was full of ripe nuts, acorns, and berries. All the animals were busy getting ready. Hedgehogs gathered apples and pears, and the squirrels filled their nests with nuts. But Lena just stretched lazily out on a tree branch and said to herself, “Winter is still far away. I have plenty of time to stock up.”
The days slipped by, and leaves started to tumble down to the ground. A cold wind blew through the forest, and the first snow covered the land in white. That year, winter came much earlier than Lena expected. When she woke up in her cozy but completely empty nest, she felt a sharp pang of hunger.
She poked her nose out of her hiding place and saw that everything was covered in snow. There was nothing nearby to fill her empty little tummy.
“I’ll just wait until some people come by. They’ll feed me,” she said carelessly.
But the next days flew past, and in the stormy, freezing weather nobody came to the forest at all. Lena grew terribly hungry. She had no choice but to leave the comfort of her nest and try to find something—anything—to eat. She searched all through the woods, but every nut and acorn was buried deep under the snow. At last, she understood that she wouldn’t find any food now.
Desperate, she ran to her squirrel friends. “Please help me!” she begged, tears shining in her eyes. “I didn’t prepare any food, and now I have nothing to eat.”
The other squirrels looked at her with gentle, sympathetic eyes.
“Lena,” said the oldest one, “we kept warning you that you needed to get ready for winter. Even though you didn’t listen, we’ll still help you. Come on, we’ll share our food with you.”
Hedgehog Henry—who everyone called Hank—showed up too, carrying a few apples and pears for Lena. “Don’t worry, Lena,” Hank said kindly. “Winter is long, but we’ll help you through it.”
Then along came Martin the bear with a big chunk of honeycomb. “We’re all friends in this forest,” he said with a warm smile. “Friends stick together and help each other.”
Lena was deeply moved. Thanks to the kindness and generosity of her friends, she made it through the winter. Every single day she remembered how lazy she had been—and how dangerous that laziness could be. She promised herself she would never again skip getting ready for winter.
When spring finally returned and the snow melted away, Lena was the very first squirrel to start gathering food. She worked hard all summer and all fall. As soon as she had more than enough stored for herself, she helped her friends with their winter preparations too.
From that time on, Lena never forgot how important it is to be prepared—and how much her friends had helped her when she needed it most. And so they all lived happily and peacefully in their wonderful storybook forest, where friendship and helping one another always came first.
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