How Did Pip's Nuts Go? Jolly Phonics · Step 3, Unit 7: /oa/ mixed

High up in an old oak tree, there is a tiny town. Each home has a red roof, yellow walls, and a little dark way in. Dark holes dot the trunk, row on row. All the holes are for Pip. And Pip is hard at it, all day long.

When the first leaf turns orange, Pip starts to collect nuts. She stows them in all the holes she sees. One nut here. Three nuts there. She crams an armful in the big hole by the pumpkins. 'Fifteen, sixteen...' she counts, and runs down the hill to get more. Winter will come soon, and Pip will not go hungry.

In the morning, Pip checks her best spot. No nuts. She checks the next hole. No nuts. Not one nut in the oak, not one in the ground. 'Who took my nuts?' Pip yells. A bird hops up. 'Not me,' he says. 'I eat bugs.' Pip frowns. 'Well, some sly beast took them. And I will get him.'

Pip runs up to the hive in the oak. The bees see all that goes on. They buzz and poke all day. 'Bees!' Pip calls out. 'Did any bee see who took my nuts?' A hum comes back from the hive. 'We did not see it. We did not see it at all.' 'Is that right?' says Pip. 'Nuts do not roll off on their own!'

'Is that right?' asks Pip. 'Is that right? Is that RIGHT?' She asks one time too many. The bees rush at her in a buzzing cloud. Pip slips off the branch, flips, and drops down to the grass far below. 'Fine!' she yells on the way down. 'I will ask a fly!'

Pip gets up and spots a fly by the yellow flowers. 'Fly! Help me hunt for my nuts!' The fly gazes at her for one long blink. Then he turns and buzzes off the other way. 'Wow,' Pip moans. 'No bird saw it. No bee saw it. No fly will help.' She sits on a rock with a big frown. This is a bad, bad day.

'Pip! Up here!' Liz calls from a branch. She holds food out to Pip. 'No nuts! That is so sad. Take this food, Pip.' Pip looks up. Something in Pip growls. She is so hungry. But she says no. 'Keep it, Liz. I will fix this.' Liz smiles. Pip is like that. She will not bend, but she is good to all.

Liz comes down and sits by Pip on the branch. For a bit, no one says a thing. Then Liz speaks. 'Pip, all the town sees how hard those nuts were to get. No one here would steal them.' Pip blinks. 'Wait,' she says, slow and low. 'If no one took my nuts... then where did the nuts go?'

Pip's tail flips up. She grips the bark and goes down the trunk, sniffing as she goes. If no one took the nuts up, then the nuts may have rolled down! Lower and lower she goes, past the homes, past the dark holes, down to the roots below. And then, a soft sound. A small, shy sound.

A little fellow sits at the base of the oak, by a big pile. Pip's nuts! This is Bud. Bud digs holes to stow his own food. But this hole is too deep. It goes right into Pip's store, and all the nuts roll down into it. 'I feel so bad,' Bud moans, ears low. 'I did not mean it. I did not think the nuts had an owner.' Pip looks at her nuts. Then she grins. 'All that fuss, and it is just a hole in the ground!'

Pip does not just stow nuts. She can fix things. She gets planks. She gets nails. She hammers planks across the hole. Bang, bang, bang! Now the hole is shut tight. 'There,' she says. 'No one's nuts will roll down there now.' Then she tucks all her nuts back in place and goes up to her home in the branches.

Pip sinks into her seat, pulls up a blanket, and looks at the sunset glow in the window. All her nuts are safe. All are back in place. She sips her tea and smiles. In the morning she will go and thank Liz. 'Who took my nuts?' Pip says with a grin. 'No one did. No one at all!'