Tommy Smith remembered, then, that the grass-snake had told him that he went to sleep in the winter, because he could get no frogs to eat; and the frog had said he did, because he could find no insects. So he saw that there was the same reason for all these three animals, who were so different from each other, doing the same thing. “And that’s why the dormouse goes to sleep too, I suppose,” he said to himself, and then he began to think that if any other animals went to sleep all the winter, it must be because they could get no food.
“But I don’t think I could go to sleep if I was very hungry,” he said to the squirrel; “and if I did, I’m sure I should wake up again very soon and want my dinner.”
“I daresay you would,” said the squirrel; “and if you couldn’t get it, you would soon die.”
“But do you never wake up and want your dinner, Mr. Squirrel?” said Tommy Smith.
“Oh yes,” said the squirrel, “I often wake up, but whenever I do, I can always get it. Do you know why? Because I am such a clever animal, that I hide away food in the autumn, so that I can find it in the winter.”
“But you said you couldn’t find food in the winter,” said Tommy Smith.
“Oh, I meant that I couldn’t find it growing on the trees and bushes,” said the squirrel. “Of course I can find what I have stored away, and that is enough for all the time I am awake. But it wouldn’t be enough for the whole winter, so I sleep or doze most of the time, and then I don’t require anything.”
“But why don’t you store away enough food for the whole winter?” said Tommy Smith. “Then you needn’t go to sleep at all, you know.”
“Good gracious!” said the squirrel, “that would take a great deal too much time. It is all very well to put a few things aside, so as to have something to eat on sunny days—for those are the days I like to wake up on,—but just fancy having to find dinners beforehand for every day all through the winter. I could never do that, you know. One dinner to think about is quite enough as a rule. How should you like to have to cook two dinners every day, and always put one of them in a cupboard?”
“But you don’t cook your dinners, Mr. Squirrel,” said Tommy Smith.