"Hello!" I said, "What have you been up to?"
"Hello yourself! I have been getting my education but am making poor progress."
"But you're such a bright, chipper thing. Surely you're not in earnest!"
"Careful how you spell that, human."
"Of course, Ernest. What seems to be the problem?"
"It's this heat, Geo., this "summer" thing. It gets to my brain and I can't remember where I buried my nuts."
"Understandable, Ernest, hot weather affects us all. It sends my blood circulation to all sorts of irrelevant places."
"Yes, but you're over 100 times my age. I'm a young adult squirrel and you're a bag of mad old bones."
"Now, now, settle down. You've left the wisdom of your elders out of your calculations."
"I'm trying to remember where I buried my nuts, Geo. What does your vast experience have to offer?"
"Beyond a particularly disgusting old sea shanty, nothing. However, age brings contemplation of enigmas --important and difficult questions like..."
"Like what, Geo.? What's going through your heat-and-age-addled mind now?"
"Well, Ernest, I was just wondering how spiritual life might change if all the different religions of the world succeeded in converting each other at once."
"Hmmm."
"Ernest? Ernest, where are you skulking off to?"
"Geo., I believe I just recalled where my nuts are."
Well! Everybody's got to believe something but I suspect he's just avoiding me until autumn.