among the
brown-and-yellow leaves on the ground. Happy Jack looked sharply, and
then a sudden thought popped into his head.

"Hi, there, Cousin Chipmunk!" he shouted.

"Hi, there, your own self!" replied Striped Chipmunk, for it was he.

"What are you doing down there?" asked Happy Jack.

"Looking for hickory nuts," replied Striped Chipmunk, and his eyes
twinkled as he said it, for there wasn't a hickory tree near.

Happy Jack looked hard at Striped Chipmunk, for that sudden thought
which had popped into his head when he first saw Striped Chipmunk was
growing into a strong, a very strong, suspicion that Striped Chipmunk
knew something about those lost hickory nuts. But Striped Chipmunk
looked back at him so innocently that Happy Jack didn't know just what
to think.

"Have you begun to fill your storehouse for winter yet?" inquired Happy
Jack.

"Of course I have. I don't mean to let Jack Frost catch me with an empty
storehouse," replied Striped Chipmunk.

"When leaves turn yellow, brown, and red,
And nuts come pitter, patter down;
When days are short and swiftly sped,
And Autumn wears her colored gown,
I'm up before old Mr. Sun
His nightcap has a chance to doff,
And have my day's work well begun
When others kick their bedclothes off."

"What are you filling your storehouse with?" asked Happy Jack, trying
not to show too much interest.

"Corn, nice ripe yellow corn, and seeds and acorns and chestnuts,"
answered Striped Chipmunk. "And now I'm looking for some big, fat
hickory nuts," he added, and his bright eyes twinkled. "Have you seen
any, Happy Jack?"

Happy Jack said that he hadn't seen any, and Striped Chipmunk remarked
that he couldn't waste any more time talking, and scurried away. Happy
Jack watched him go, a puzzled little frown puckering up his brows.

"I believe he knows something about those nuts. I think I'll follow him
and have a peep into his storehouse," he muttered.

CHAPTER VI

HAPPY JACK SPIES ON STRIPED CHIPMUNK

It's more important to mind your own affairs than to know what your
neighbors are doing, but not nearly so interesting.

_Happy Jack._

Striped Chipmunk was whisking about among the brown-and-yellow leaves
that covered the ground on the edge of the Green Forest. He is such a
little fellow that he looked almost like a brown leaf himself, and when
one of Old Mother West Wind's Merry Little Breezes whirled the brown
leaves i