The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes

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The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes is a book written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. It was first published in 1911.

[edit] Synopsis

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Timmy Tiptoes, a squirrel, and his wife Goody decide to gather nuts to lay up for the winter and spring. When the tree stumps they were using to store their nuts in are full, they begin to use a woodpecker’s tree hole. Meanwhile, a squirrel named Silvertail digs up another squirrel’s nuts, resulting in a fight and causing a spate of digging by the other squirrels. A flock of birds flies by, one of them singing about digging up nuts. The squirrels follow this bird to where Timmy and Goody are gathering nuts, where it continues to sing its song. When they hear the birdsong, the squirrels attack Timmy and chase him. Capturing him, they take him to the tree hole he had used to store his nuts in and force him into it, injuring him. They intend to imprison him until he confesses. Goody meanwhile returns home, but as Timmy does not return, she goes out to look for him.

When Timmy comes to, he finds himself finds himself tucked into a moss bed and confronted by a chipmunk, who on hearing his story, entices Timmy into eating quantities of nuts while he is confined to bed. Unable to find Timmy, Goody continues to gather nuts on her own. While emptying some into an empty tree root, she encounters a chipmunk who tells her that her home is being inundated with nuts and that her husband Chippy Hackee is missing. Upon learning that Goody’s husband Timmy is also missing, Mrs. Hackee leads her to where Chippy is, the same hole that Timmy had been forced into by the other squirrels. Timmy and Goody are reunited, but Timmy is too fat to squeeze out of the hole. Chippy on the other hand, refuses to leave. Two weeks later the top of the tree is blown off in a strong wind, enabling Timmy to return home. Chippy continues to stay until he is forced to leave by the arrival of a bear. Timmy and Goody now keep their nut cache secured with a padlock.