Chapter 1

THE DEAD SEA SQUIRRELS Tree-mendous Trouble From the co-creator of VeggieTales Mike Nawrocki Illustrated by Luke Seguin-Magee

CHAPTER 1 "It feels like the side of a boat," Pearl Squirrel commented as she stroked the wall of one of the rooms in the elaborate hamster home Mrs. Gomez had put together for Pearl and her husband, Merle. In her other paw, Pearl held a tiny teacup Mrs. Gomez had borrowed from one of her daughter, Jane's, dolls. Jane had also come up with a squirrel-sized fluffy pink robe and a tiny pair of bunny slippers. Pearl was getting some much-needed pampering after being kidnapped by and then rescued from the man in the suit and sunglasses, a mysterious agent working for a collector of ancient artifacts.

该页暂无翻译

"It's called shiplap," Mrs. Gomez replied proudly as she and Jane sipped from their human-sized teacups. "Do you like it?" "I love it!" Pearl gushed. "Feels so homey. Wooden walls are my favorite— just like a tree!" "I'm so happy you like it!" Mrs. Gomez loved to decorate and was very excited for the chance to put a home together for the two ancient squirrels her son, Michael, had accidentally adopted. "Did you hear that, Merle?" Pearl called across the room to her husband, who was sitting with Dr. Gomez and Michael. "We've got shiplap!" Merle had no idea what shiplap was but assumed it was a good thing and gave his wife a thumbs-up before returning to his conversation with Dr. Gomez and Michael. "Ever since I was a little pup, I'd wanted to see the Dead Sea," he said. "You can't sink!" Dr. Gomez and Michael nodded, both having swum in the Dead Sea the previous summer. Dead Sea water is nearly 10 times saltier than the ocean. All that salt makes it impossible to sink. "But how did you get there?" Dr. Gomez asked. As an anthropologist who had studied the area for years, he knew the Dead Sea was no place for tree squirrels. "And how did

you get here? If we're going to keep you safe from the man in the suit and sunglasses, I need the full story." Merle and Michael looked at each other. "Maybe you'd better sit down," Michael suggested, remembering how his dad had fainted when he'd first heard Merle speak in his research lab at the university. Dr. Gomez raised an eyebrow at his son but took a seat on the edge of Michael's bed. Then Merle and Michael told the story of how the squirrels had gotten to the Dead Sea in the 1st century and then to Walnut Creek, Tennessee, in the 21st. "It all started with the raft...," Merle began.

该页暂无翻译