Jerry was a Squirrel. Jerry was also an inventor. Quite a good one, as a matter of fact. He could design and build just about anything. The problem was, Jerry's inventions rarely worked the way he wanted them to work.

Jerry stepped out of his house and took a deep breath. He loved the smell of the fall air. It was mid-September, and the harvest was in full swing. Squirrels were working hard to get all the food they needed to carry them through the winter, then the spring and on to the next harvest. The Squirrels of Erry-ville were jumping from branch to branch, collecting nuts in their mouths. When their mouths were full, they would return to their houses to store the nuts. This was what Squirrels were all about. Everyone was happy this time of year.

Everyone, of course, except Barrie. Every fall, right at nut harvest time, Barrie would get a terrible head cold. He would get all stuffed up, his nose would run, and he would get all clingy. He just felt horrible and wanted people all around him to help make him feel better. That would be fine if all the Squirrels weren't busy collecting nuts, but they were.

To add to all this, Barrie would be so sick, he couldn't climb trees very well. That meant everyone else in the village had to help him with his own harvest.

"My dose is all 'tuffed up," Barrie said to Jerry as he stood in front of his house.

"What?" Jerry said, turning around to see Barrie only a few steps away. He hadn't seen Barrie walk up to him. He had been too focused the beautiful fall weather to notice the other Squirrel.

"My dose. My dose is all 'tuffed up. I can't breathe," Barrie said, looking very sad.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Barrie. Ummm... I'd love to hang out, but I have a lot of work to do," Jerry said. He was feeling bad about not being able to spend the time with Barrie, but he had to harvest nuts. Everyone did or else they would starve. Only Barrie seemed able to avoid it every year, but only because of his cold.

The cold made Barrie slow and a little unsteady. If he climbed high up in the tree while he was sick, he would always slip and fall. Since his nose was so full of snot, the landing was never a pretty sight. As a matter of fact, it was so disgusting that the other Squirrels were willing to do the work of harvesting a little extra for Barrie so the snot-making Squirrel wouldn't have to climb and splat.

"Cad you get me some duts too? I deed some duts to eat for the widter, so I don't starve to death," Barrie said.

"Um, yah," Jerry replied. "Of course I'll get a little extra for you. Everyone always grabs a little extra for you, Barrie. Don't worry, we'll take care of you. We always do. Every year."

Jerry said his good-bye and started up the side of a nearby tree. He had been working on collecting from this tree the day before and knew there were some more up there somewhere. It was a big job collecting enough nuts every year. Although he enjoyed it, it was a lot of work.

Whenever he thought of work, his mind started to spin with ideas for inventions. He wondered if there was an easier way to do this all this nut collecting. He stopped on a branch and looked down at poor Barrie. He thought about the nuts up in the trees. Every nut had to be found, pulled off the branch and taken back to a house for storage. It would take them weeks every single year! There had to be a better way!

He liked to think of problems like this. The more he thought about these kinds of problems, the more ideas would pop into his head. He thought he could create a machine that would grow the nuts in his house, but he wasn't sure that would work. He thought he could design a special kind of tree that would grow large enough nuts that two or three would be all the food they would need for an entire year. He stopped to think about that one for a moment, but then realized if one of those nuts broke off and fell to the ground, it could cause terrible damage.

It came to him. He would create a harvester. An automatic harvester could help out the whole village, especially Barrie!

He turned around and raced down the trunk. Barrie saw him coming and started toward him. Jerry knew Barrie would just want to talk about his cold and ask Jerry to collect some nuts for him, but he didn't have the time. When Jerry had an idea for an invention, he had to get to it!

He hollered out, "Can't talk now, Barrie!" and raced on to his house. He slammed the door behind him, locking it tight against interruptions. It was time to focus!

He sat down at his desk and set to work. He worked all morning on the design. He smiled to himself as he thought about how easy this invention was. It was just coming together without any trouble at all.

By lunchtime, his designs for the machine were ready, and he set to work on putting it together. He had to build most of his inventions in secret. He was a good inventor, and he knew that. The whole village and just about every Squirrel in Arestana knew that he was a good inventor. Unfortunately, sometimes his inventions didn't turn out the way he meant them to.

The mistakes weren't that bad. No one had died or anything, but it wasn't unusual for Squirrels to lose fur, for houses to burn down, for everyone to be left covered in paint or for entire nations to have to leave their lands and settle somewhere else. Because of this, he usually had to keep his work private until it was completed.

The Nut Harvester he was creating was quite large. Back behind his bedroom, he had a larger workroom with a big door leading out behind his house. He also had a lot of his tools back there, so any large inventions were assembled in that location. This invention was going to be huge. He would need the door to get it outside.

He began to build and was pleased to see it all come together quickly. It had two large arms, one out each side. The large arms would be for climbing trees. They had sharp claws on the end of each arm to grab hold of the bark, and the gears were strong enough to pull the machine way up to reach the nuts.

Up above the large arms, the machine had two smaller arms for grabbing nuts. These could stretch out quite far and were very fast. At the back was a large basket where the collected nuts could be stored. He figured the basket could hold a hundred and fifty nuts before it had to be emptied.

Below the basket was a small hole which worked as a nut dispenser. The harvester could collect the nuts and then pour them out for Squirrels through that hole. If this harvester worked as fast as he hoped it would, one Nut Harvester could do the harvesting for the entire village!

He worked all afternoon and into the evening. He knew people would be so happy when they saw this invention. Maybe even Hat Squirrel, the Squirrel leader, would come over for nut-tea and crackers with nuts in them. He wondered if Hat Squirrel would order Jerry to build one for each Squirrel village throughout Arestana! A new day was dawning for the Squirrels!

Jerry finished up and looked out the window. He could see the sun was just beginning to set. He would have to wait until the next day to show the village his new invention.

He slept soundly that night. He dreamed of Harvesters being built and distributed all across the land. He would name them something really creative... something very exciting! He would call them, "Jerry's Nut Harvester!" He wondered if the name needed a bit more work. He continued to dream and woke up at the crack of dawn.

He jumped out of bed and ran into the other room. He had a breakfast of nuts and water before running back to his workshop and throwing open the door.

The door to his workshop was large and always made a loud noise when it opened. He didn't like this because whenever anyone heard the door open, they would come running to see if they needed to stop Jerry from inventing. This time they would find they were too late. He was finished!

Sure enough, Squirrels started running toward his house, calling out for Squirrels everywhere to take cover and to prepare for the worst. They arrived in the hundreds and gathered around. Jerry could see the crowd parting and Hat Squirrel making his way to the front.

Hat Squirrel was the leader of the Squirrels. He had been leader for about a month now. The previous Hat Squirrel had been Mary. She had tripped, and the hat had fallen off her head, and then Larry had picked it up and put it on. Whoever wore the hat was Hat Squirrel and therefore the trusted leader of the Squirrel nations. The Squirrel formerly known as "Larry" was now Hat Squirrel.

"What's going on here? Are you thinking of inventing something again, Jerry? You know we don't like that kind of thing!" Hat Squirrel folded his arms in front of his chest and stared at Jerry with a grumpy look on his face.

"Well, Hat Squirrel, sir, I don't mean to be a bother." Jerry was feeling nervous. He didn't like it when everyone looked at him. He wanted to feel important, but he always preferred to work in the background. He didn't like all the attention. "I'm not about to invent something; I've already finished!"

Everyone gasped in terror. Some crouched down while others rolled into a ball and started to rock on the ground. Many of the Squirrels still standing either began to cry or just stared ahead as if all was lost. They looked like they were ready to accept their fate.

"What?" yelled Hat Squirrel. "Have you endangered everyone in the entire land? Are you telling us that we are doomed?"

"No..." Jerry replied. "That seems a little extreme. It's just a harvester."

"A what?" Hat Squirrel asked. The rest of the Squirrels in the crowd began to murmur. They were afraid of what Jerry had invented, but their curiosity was getting the best of them.

"It's a harvester. It's for harvesting nuts. I made it so that it climbs the trees, finds the nuts and picks them for us. It'll then bring them down, and we won't have to spend all the time harvesting nuts." Jerry stepped back, put his hand on the harvester and smiled. He was proud of his invention.

"You mean... we won't have to harvest nuts anymore?" one of the Squirrels asked as he stepped forward.

"Nope, this little baby will do all the work for you!" Jerry replied, tapping the harvester on the back. "Think of the hours of work this will save you each and every fall!"

The Squirrels were a funny bunch. They were hard working and loved their work. They also were really lazy and loved to sit around and do nothing. They could get excited about extra work to do, and they could get excited if the work didn't have to be done. This time, they were excited about not having as much work to do.

"I don't know if this is a good idea," Hat Squirrel said. "Will it also cause all the bees in Arestana to go crazy and sting us repeatedly again?"

"No, Hat Squirrel. I told you I was sorry about that. It was all just a misunderstanding. The bees misunderstood the whole situation and overreacted when they saw the giant bear coming for their hives. This won't affect the bees at all," Jerry explained, looking a little embarrassed.

"Well, I don't see the harm in trying this out, as long as the bees aren't upset by it," Hat Squirrel said. "If it'll allow us to not have to harvest nuts every fall, that sounds like a good idea to me."

Everyone cheered and then looked at Jerry. They were all anxious to see it work.

He turned to the Nut Harvester and flipped the switch to the on position. It started to rumble and turn and twist around. Jerry knew it was just trying to figure out where all the nuts were so it could get started, but everyone else cowered in fear.

Once it had spun around a few times, it picked a tree and rushed up the side. In no time, it was hard at work, and in a matter of minutes, it had come down to the bottom of the tree and dumped a pile of nuts on the ground before rushing back up the tree to collect more.

The entire village of Squirrels stared at the pile of nuts. They couldn't believe how fast this thing had harvested their food for them. At the speed it collected nuts, it would likely have enough for all the Squirrels within a day or two.

Jerry turned to look at Hat Squirrel to see a big smile on his face. "Do you like it, Hat Squirrel?" Jerry asked, feeling very proud of himself.

"I love it, Jerry! I love it so much that I hereby claim it for myself. The Nut Harvester from this day forward shall be called, Hat Squirrel's Nut Harvester. I also claim that I invented it," Hat Squirrel declared.

"What? You can't claim that!" Jerry said.

"Pardon me? I think I just did," Hat Squirrel explained. "It is now all mine."

"Good job on the Nut Harvester!" Mary shouted from somewhere in the back of the crowd. "I didn't think you were an inventor too, but you've clearly proven yourself to be an excellent one."

The other Squirrels chimed in as well to congratulate Hat Squirrel on a good invention. He smiled back proudly and even shed a tear, wiping it away with a look in his eye that said, "Thank you, it was hard work, but worth the effort."

The Harvester came down again and dumped another load of nuts on the ground. It did this again and again and again. Within a short amount of time, there was a huge pile of nuts. Jerry was pretty sure the harvester had collected the same amount in about one hour that it would have taken the entire village to collect in two days. This Nut Harvester was amazing... even if it now belonged to Hat Squirrel.

Hat Squirrel's Nut Harvester continued about its business as the Squirrels set to work on transferring all the collected nuts to their homes. Since Barrie was so sick and snotty, no one allowed him near the collected nuts. Instead, they carried all the food he needed to his house.

That night, Jerry went to bed, listening to the sound of the Nut Harvester as it continued searching the trees for more nuts. It worked so well. He was proud of what he had accomplished.

The next morning, Jerry stepped out of his house to see the huge pile of nuts had grown larger. There were so many nuts, he realized it was far more than the entire village could eat in a year, maybe even two years!

As he stared at the pile, his thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Hat Squirrel yelling. "Stop! I command you, stop! You are my Nut Harvester! It's time for you to stop collecting nuts! Stop!"

Jerry watched as the Nut Harvester continued to search the trees. It appeared to be having some trouble finding nuts now, but it still found the occasional one.

"What's wrong," Jerry asked.

"My Nut Harvester, you know, the one I invented?" Hat Squirrel asked.

"Yes, I know that Nut Harvester," Jerry said as he rolled his eyes.

"Well, it won't stop. Do you know how to stop it?" Hat Squirrel asked.

"Did you try turning it off? You can flip the same switch I used to turn it on. Just turn that to the off position," he replied.

Hat Squirrel nodded his head and ran over to the Nut Harvester, just as it came down to dump another load onto the huge pile. He grabbed for the switch, but just as he reached for it, he tripped and banged his head right on the side.

The Nut Harvester instantly ground to a halt, and Hat Squirrel stood up. He adjusted his hat and smiled at the Nut Harvester. "It's a good thing I put that shut-off switch right there! That's using my head!" he said.

He laughed quite hard at his little joke. He laughed till all the other Squirrels joined in and he was satisfied they had found it as funny as he had.

Jerry could not help but groan when he heard the laughing. He turned to walk away but stopped as he heard another noise.

The Nut Harvester started to growl. He turned back to see it shaking a lot. The other Squirrels started to gather around and ask Hat Squirrel what was wrong with his invention.

Suddenly the Nut Harvester started to smoke out the top and then it jumped up in the air about the height of a Squirrel. It held in the air for a moment before crashing down again on the ground. Everyone watched as the Nut Harvester sat still for a moment, then moved quickly over to the pile of nuts. It climbed up on top of the huge pile and began to fill the basket again.

"What's going on?" Barrie asked as he walked up. "Does that Dut Harvester know that I have a cold?"

Jerry noticed the little dispensing hole on the bottom of the Nut Harvester was doing something a little odd. A small tube appeared out of the hole and came out just a little bit. Jerry had seen enough inventions go wrong that he knew things were about to get messy. He was just about to turn and run when he heard a sound that made his heart stop.

The sound he heard was, "rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat" as the Nut Harvester started to fire nuts out of the tube at any and all Squirrels around. The nuts came fast and hard at any Squirrels unlucky enough to be within sight of the machine.

Mary caught four of them in the belly. Her cheeks were full of nuts at the time of impact, but that didn't last long. Her cheeks emptied out on the ground, and she fell over, groaning in agony.

As soon as Mary went down, any Squirrels still standing still ran for cover. When an invention went bad, there was nothing to do but run.

Perry and Terry had just started to run for their lives when the Nut Harvester took aim and hit each of them right on their butts. They both went down with a cry of pain.

Hat Squirrel was next. He screamed out in fear, and the Nut Harvester filled his mouth with about one hundred nuts in about two and a half seconds. It was a terrible sight. As the nuts were fired directly into his mouth, his cheeks stretched out, and his eyes grew large. His cheeks grew larger and larger, and Jerry looked away just before he heard a little "pop."

The worst, though, was Barrie. The Nut Harvester was extra cruel to him. He was trying to run away, but every time he saw another Squirrel, he stopped to tell them about his cold. He wasn't getting very far.

He turned back just for a second toward the Nut Harvester, but it was all the time the Nut Harvester needed. It simply fired two nuts at Barrie, one at each nostril. Its aim was true, and both hit with a little splat and sunk right in.

Everyone stopped and stared. They knew what was about to happen and they knew they should keep running, but it was something they couldn't turn away from. It would be terrible, and it would be gross, but they just had to watch. Curiosity took over.

Barrie stood there for a moment and tried to get the nuts out. He turned to the left and to the right, hoping someone would come to his aide. No one moved. They were all too afraid. The nuts had clogged his nose, and there was nowhere for the snot to go. The snot could do nothing but build up more and more. It could take hours or even days, but the way that Barrie's nose worked, Jerry suspected it would take only minutes.

The moment came sooner than anyone could have imagined. The pressure in the nose built more and more till it could not hold it any longer.

The explosion wasn't so much of an explosion as a very wet splat. No one was safe, not even those who had taken cover behind a tree or bush or even inside a house. Everyone and everything had a thin layer of gross all over them.

When it was done, everyone looked at Barry. He stood with a smile on his face.

"Hey, everyone! My nose is clear! I can breathe just fine! I'm all better!"

I hope you enjoyed this fourth part of this series of stories on Jerry the Squirrel. Keep your eye out for more.

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