Sunny Squirrel wanted to keep the forest bright, but tonight the woods felt very dark. He sat in his tree home, a snug trunk with a round door and tiny windows. Yellow sunshine marks dotted his brown fur. They glowed faintly in the dim room. Outside, rain tapped the bark. Sunny pressed his nose to the window and counted the lit windows across the woods. He counted none. That was the problem. When the forest turned gray and cold, his neighbors shut their doors. The old badger stayed in her burrow. The mouse family hid under roots. Nobody visited. Nobody talked. Sunny had sunshine on his fur, but a squirrel could not shine into every closed door. He needed one place where folk could come together when the dark pressed in. He climbed down his ladder in the rain. He searched the woods for a spot. Then he found it. A massive oak had fallen long ago, leaving a huge hollow trunk standing like a tower. The inside was dry. The walls were thick bark. It was big enough for many animals at once. "This can be a lodge," Sunny said. "A place for everyone." He got to work the next morning. He gathered fallen branches and dragged them to the hollow oak. He wedged a rounded door into the opening. He cut small windows and fitted shutters that swung open and shut. Moss grew along the base, and he left it. The roof took the longest. He layered wood slats until the rain rolled off clean. For three days Sunny worked alone. His paws grew sore. The sunshine marks on his fur caught the morning light and made the oak look warm, even from far away. That gave him an idea. He hauled a lantern up and hung it by the door. He lit it each night so the oak glowed. On the fourth night, Sunny stood inside the finished lodge. He had placed log stools in a circle. He had swept the floor. Then he waited. He had lit the lantern, but no one came. Sunny almost gave up. Instead, he ran to each closed door in the dark. He knocked on the badger's burrow. He tapped the mouse family's root. "There's a warm place now," he told them. "Come see. Just follow the light." One by one, doors opened. The badger came first, blinking. The mice came next, holding paws. More followed, drawn by the glowing oak. They filled the stools. They talked. They laughed. The hollow oak lodge was warm and bright, and nobody sat alone. Sunny grinned. His forest had a gathering spot at last. But as the animals settled in, the badger frowned. "It's lovely," she said. "But winter is coming. When the cold bites hard, this hollow oak will freeze. How will you keep it warm then, Sunny?" Sunny's smile faded. He had built a place to gather. Now he had to keep it from turning cold.