Skeeter's Wooden Nickel Tea Room

While Stashia had been listening to Marlee's secret, but she also had heard chattering of both humans and a pesky squirrel outside. Oh she wanted Marlee to leave the room so she could get at that squirrel. He had always given her so much trouble. This time was different though. This time the squirrel almost sounded like he was laughing. "I'm getting old I guess. Since he isn't bothering and teasing me today,  I will just go have a nap."

Skeeter, the chattering squirrel, was the owner of a very what some folks call "shady or not very nice," business. Long ago he had started Skeeter's Wooden Nickel Tea Room in a hollowed out old tree that he had discovered close by Grandma B's house.

 He would invite other animals in for his food and tea and charge them a huge amount of sunflower seeds, berries, acorns,and other juicy morsels for him to eat or store away for his winter food. Rabbits and skunks and chipmunks were so easy to trick. In return he would give them bad food and plain water. If they complained about the service he would give them a wooden nickel. He told them that they could trade those wooden nickels for valuable things that other animals would trade for. Needless to say, Skeeter had handed out many many wooden nickels because he got lots of complaints. He had a lot of food stored and wasn't out much because those wooden nickels weren't worth anything at all. Once in a great while humans would find his tea room. He hated that because they expected something to eat that humans liked, like sandwiches and cupcakes and lemonade. He would try to get them to leave as quickly as possible by giving them sunflower seeds and honey. He was such a naughty squirrel, wasn't he?

One day two ladies that were best friends for a very long time decided that they would go out for the day. They planned to go shopping and then go to a tea room for lunch. When Katie left her home to pick up her friend, Melissa, her family said, "Don't take any wooden nickels!" Everyone laughed and they went on their way.

They had a wonderful day. They found lots of bargains. They both decided that they would search for a new tea room for their lunch; somewhere they had never been. They loved to eat at new places. As they were walking Katie looked down and said, "Oh, you are not going to believe this; I just found a wooden nickel." They both looked at it and shook their heads and chuckled. They hadn't seen a wooden nickel for years and years.  She picked it up and put it in her purse to show her family. They walked to the car and started looking for a fun little Tea Room.

 It seemed like they had driven quite awhile when Katie said, "Oh oh. I think a tire just went flat. I'm going to pull over and take a look." Sure enough one of her tires had gone flat. The friends got to work and changed the tire. As they were getting ready to get in the car they noticed a sign that said, "Skeeter's Wooden Nickel Tea Room." They looked ahead and saw an old hollowed out tree. They started to giggle and Katie said, "Well, are you game? I've got a wooden nickel." Oh they laughed. It seemed to them that this was just the kind of adventure they were looking for today. They walked over an old bridge deep into the timber. There in front of them was the tea room.

When they walked in the tiny door they felt like they were in the Alice In Wonderland story. It was very small and so were the tables. A pretty little hostess came to greet them and said,  "Hello, my name is Riley. Would you like a table for two?"