Obviously the men weren't going round the squirrel!
If you were to draw a line from the squirrel to the men & then analysed the movement of the line, you would see that the squirrel & the men were at opposite ends of a line that was pivoting around a point somewhere in the middle of the tree.
So I would argue that both the squirrel & the men were going around the tree.
If the pivot had been at the squirrel then the squirrel would not remain hidden by the tree. Furthermore, whether the squirrel was facing toward the men the whole time is completely irrelevant.

Anyway - I am really enjoying the image of tommorrow being merely a time squirrel running round the midnight tree. Cheers Bill D!