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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9462.txt b/9462.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..84bb83c --- /dev/null +++ b/9462.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2225 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Sandy Chipmunk, by Arthur Scott Bailey + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Tale of Sandy Chipmunk + +Author: Arthur Scott Bailey + +Posting Date: January 25, 2013 [EBook #9462] +Release Date: +First Posted: +Last Updated: + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + + + + + + + _SLEEPY-TIME_ + + + + + THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK + + BY + + ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY + + + + +ILLUSTRATED BY HARRY L. SMITH + + +1916 + + + +[Illustration: Sandy Was So Startled That He Dropped the Eggs] + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I SANDY'S NAME + + II SOMETHING IN THE SKY + + III THE BROKEN EGG + + IV BUILDING A HOUSE + + V MRS. CHIPMUNK IS GLAD + + VI SAMPLES OF WHEAT + + VII UNCLE SAMMY'S STORE + + VIII THE BASKET OF CORN + + IX WORKING FOR MR. CROW + + X MR. CROW SCOLDS SANDY + + XI THE MAIL-BOX + + XII SANDY GETS A LETTER + + XIII A RIDE TO THE MILLER'S + + XIV A LUCKY ACCIDENT + + XV THE ROWDY OF THE WOODS + + XVI ROWDY RUNS AWAY + + XVII CORN-PLANTING TIME + +XVIII SANDY LIKES MILK + + XIX WHAT THE OLD COW DID + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +SANDY WAS SO STARTLED THAT HE DROPPED THE EGGS + +MRS. CHIPMUNK WENT TO THE DOOR WITH SANDY + +HE DROPPED THE GRAIN IN FRONT OF UNCLE SAMMY + +UNCLE SAMMY SEARCHED HIS SHELVES CAREFULLY + +"HERE'S A LETTER FOR ME!" SAID SANDY CHIPMUNK + +FARMER GREEN'S CAT LEAPED OUT OF THE DOORWAY + + + + +THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK + + + + +I + +SANDY'S NAME + + +In the first place, no doubt you will want to learn why he was known as +_Sandy_. Many others, before you, have wondered how Sandy Chipmunk came +by his name. + +Whenever any one asked Sandy himself why he was so called, he always said +that he was in too great a hurry to stop to explain. And it is a fact +that of all the four-footed folk in Pleasant Valley--and on Blue Mountain +as well--he was one of the busiest. He was a great worker. And when he +played--as he sometimes did--he played just as hard as he worked. + +In spite of his being so busy, there may have been another reason why he +never would tell any one why he was named Sandy. Jimmy Rabbit was the +first to suggest that perhaps Sandy Chipmunk didn't know. + +Jimmy and some of his neighbors were sunning themselves in Farmer Green's +pasture one day. And while they were idling away the afternoon Sandy +Chipmunk scurried past on top of the stone wall, with his cheek-pouches +full of nuts. + +"There goes Sandy Chipmunk!" Jimmy Rabbit exclaimed. He called to Sandy. +But Sandy did not stop. He made no answer, either, beyond a flick of his +tail. You see, his mouth was so full that he couldn't say a word. + +"I was going to ask him about his name," Jimmy Rabbit remarked. "I've +almost made up my mind that he doesn't know any more about it than +anybody else." + +"Probably he doesn't," Fatty Coon agreed. "But it's easy to see why he's +called Sandy. He likes to dig in the _sandy_ soil in this pasture." + +"I don't agree with you," Billy Woodchuck said. "_I_ think he was named +Sandy on account of his yellowish, reddish, brownish color." + +Some of the others thought that Billy might have guessed the right +answer. But Frisky Squirrel told them that that wasn't the reason at all. + +"It's because he's _plucky_," he declared. "You know, _gritty_ is the +same as _plucky_. And _sandy_ is the same as _gritty_. That's the +reason," Frisky said. "It's plain as the nose on your face." He was +looking straight at Tommy Fox as he said that. + +Now, Tommy Fox had a very long nose. And he became angry at once. His +face would have grown red, probably, if it hadn't been that color always. + +"You don't know what you're talking about!" he snapped. + +Old Mr. Crow, who sat in a tree nearby, nodded his head. + +"You're all wrong," he told them. "The reason for calling that young +Chipmunk boy Sandy is because his real name is Alexander. And everybody +who knows anything at all knows that Sandy is just a short way of saying +Alexander." + +When they heard that, Fatty Coon and Billy Woodchuck and Frisky Squirrel +looked foolish. People thought Mr. Crow was a wise old gentleman. And +when he said a thing was so, that usually settled it. + +"Here he comes again!" Mr. Crow said. + +They all looked around. And sure enough! there was Sandy Chipmunk, +hurrying along the top of the wall, to get more nuts to store away for +the winter. + +"Wait a moment!" Mr. Crow called to him. "I want to tell you something." + +Sandy Chipmunk came to a halt and sat up on top of a stone, with his tail +curled over his back. + +"Talk fast, please!" he said. "I'm in a great hurry. Winter will be here +before you know it. And I want to store away a great many nuts before +somebody else gathers them all." + +"I won't keep you long," Mr. Crow told him. "It's about your name--" + +"I've no time to stop to explain," Sandy Chipmunk interrupted. "As I +said, I'm very busy to-day." And he started to scamper along the wall +again. + +Once more Mr. Crow stopped him. + +"You don't understand," he said. "I don't want to _ask_ you anything. I +want to _tell_ you something." + +"Oh!" said Sandy. "That's different. What is it?" + +"It's quite a joke," Mr. Crow said. And he laughed loudly. "These young +fellows here have been trying to tell one another why you're called +Sandy. One of 'em says it's because you like to dig in the sandy soil; +and another says it's because of your color; and still another claims +it's because you're plucky. But I tell 'em it's because your real name is +Alexander. And of course I'm right," said old Mr. Crow. + +Sandy Chipmunk smiled. And then he started off again. And again Mr. Crow +stopped him. + +"Quite a joke on these youngsters--isn't it?" he inquired. + +"You told me you didn't want to _ask_ me anything," Sandy Chipmunk +reminded him. "But I will say this--though I am in a great hurry: So far +as I know, you are all of you right. And that's a joke on you, Mr. Crow." + +Then Sandy Chipmunk scampered off. And everybody laughed--except Mr. +Crow. + +"Alexander Chipmunk is a very pert young man," he grumbled. + + + + +II + +SOMETHING IN THE SKY + + +When Sandy Chipmunk was just a little chap his mother began to teach him +to take care of himself. She told him that among other enemies he must +always watch out for foxes and minks and weasels--especially weasels. + +"They are very dangerous," Mrs. Chipmunk said. + +"Well, I'll always be safe if I climb a tree--won't I?" Sandy asked her. + +"Goodness, no!" his mother replied. "There are many big birds--such as +hawks and owls and eagles--that would catch you if they could.... But +I'll tell you about _them_ some other time, Sandy." + +Well, Sandy Chipmunk went out to play. But he didn't have what you would +call a good time, because he couldn't help thinking of his mother's +warning. He kept looking all around to see whether a weasel or a mink or +a fox might be trying to steal up behind him. And he kept looking up to +make sure that no big bird was ready to swoop down upon him. + +But nothing of the sort happened--at least, not until the middle of the +afternoon. Sandy had begun to believe that his mother was too timid. He +did not think there was anything in Farmer Green's pasture to be afraid +of. There were the cows--nothing seemed to worry _them_. They ate grass, +or chewed their cuds, and never once looked behind them. + +Sandy Chipmunk wandered further and further from home. For a long time he +had not taken the trouble to look at the sky. But at last he glanced up. +And to his great alarm he saw, hovering in the air far above him, an +enormous creature. He had never seen its like before. It seemed all head +and tail. Two great eyes stared at Sandy Chipmunk and sent a chill of +fear over him. The monster's wide mouth grinned at him cruelly. And its +long tail lashed back and forth as if its owner were very angry. Even as +Sandy looked at the creature it gave a horrid scream. + +Sandy Chipmunk did not wait for anything else. He turned and ran home. +And a few of his friends who happened to see him remarked that he seemed +to be in a greater hurry than ever. + +Sandy felt better when he found himself safe in his mother's house. And +he told Mrs. Chipmunk what he had seen. + +"It may be an owl," he said, "because it has big, round eyes. But its +tail was not like any owl's tail that I ever saw. It was like six +catamounts' tails, all tied in knots." + +"That's queer!" his mother remarked. "I never knew of a bird with a tail +like that." + +"Maybe it's a beast that has learned to fly," Sandy suggested. + +"Beasts can't fly," Mrs. Chipmunk said. + +But Sandy knew better than that. + +"There's the Flying-Squirrel family," he reminded her. + +"They can only fly from one tree to another," his mother told him. "I +think I'll peep out and see for myself what this strange creature looks +like." + +He begged her not to. But Mrs. Chipmunk said she would be careful. And +she went out and looked up at the sky. + +Sandy was surprised when she came back laughing. + +"What is it, Mother?" he asked. "Is it a bird or a beast?" + +"Neither!" Mrs. Chipmunk answered with a smile. + +"Then it must be a fish!" Sandy exclaimed. + +"No! It's not a fish, either," his mother said. "It's nothing but a kite +that Johnnie Green has made. He has painted eyes and a mouth on it. And I +must say that if I didn't know a kite when I saw one it might have +frightened me." + +"But what makes it lash its tail that way?" Sandy asked her. + +"The wind is blowing it," Mrs. Chipmunk explained. + +"What made it scream?" Sandy inquired. + +"It didn't," his mother replied. + +[Illustration: Mrs. Chipmunk Went to the Door with Sandy] + +Now, Sandy Chipmunk knew better than to contradict his mother. So all he +said was this: + +"Let's go outside and listen!" + +Still smiling, Mrs. Chipmunk went to the door again with Sandy. And +pretty soon they heard a long, far-off wail. + +"There!" he cried. "That's it! Don't you hear it, Mother?" + +"That--" Mrs. Chipmunk said--"that is nothing but the whistle of an +engine, way down at the other end of Pleasant Valley." + + + + +III + +THE BROKEN EGG + + +Nuts and grains were what Sandy Chipmunk ate more than anything else. But +sometimes when he could not find enough of those, or when he wanted a +change of food, he would eat almost any sort of berry, and apples and +pears as well. Tomatoes, too, he liked once in a while. And he was very +fond of sunflower seeds. He would not refuse a fat insect, either, if it +flew his way. But these were not the only dainties that Sandy thought +good. There was something else--something to be found in trees--for which +Sandy sometimes hunted. And before he came home, after finding what he +was looking for, he always wiped his mouth with great care. + +If you had ever seen him wiping his mouth like that, you might have +guessed that Sandy Chipmunk had been eating birds' eggs. And the reason +he was so careful to remove all signs of his feast was because he did not +want his mother to know what he had been doing. + +Now you have heard the worst there is to know about Sandy Chipmunk. + +To you it may seem odd that Mrs. Chipmunk did not think it wrong to rob +birds' nests. And now you know the worst about _her_. + +Sandy's mother liked eggs just as much as he did. But her son was such +a little fellow that she was afraid he might get hurt climbing trees +and looking for eggs. She told him that some day some bird might +surprise him when he was enjoying a meal of her eggs, and peck out one +or two of his eyes. + +"Keep away from the nests!" Mrs. Chipmunk said. + +But Sandy had had too many tastes of birds' eggs. He simply couldn't +resist eating a few eggs now and then. Of course, when he did that he +disobeyed his mother. And of course, if she had known it she would have +punished him. + +As the spring days sped past, the birds that lived in Farmer Green's +pasture grew very angry with Sandy Chipmunk. You see, it was not +long before they discovered who it was that was robbing their nests +now and then. + +"You'd better leave birds' eggs alone!" Mr. Crow warned him one day. "A +number of my friends have told me what they're going to do to you, if +they catch you near their nests." + +But Sandy told Mr. Crow to keep his advice to himself. + +"What about Farmer Green's corn?" Sandy asked the old gentleman. "I've +heard that Farmer Green is looking for you with a gun." + +Mr. Crow didn't even answer him. He just flew away. There were some +things he didn't like to talk about. + +That very afternoon Sandy Chipmunk spied a robin's nest in a tree not far +from where he lived. And in less time than it takes to tell it, he had +climbed the tree and run out on the limb where the nest rested. + +Sandy Chipmunk smiled as he peered into the robin's nest. The four +greenish-blue eggs that he saw there looked very good to him. And he +smacked his lips--though his mother had often told him not to. He was +just picking the eggs out of the nest when he heard a rustle in the +leaves over his head. And Sandy Chipmunk looked up quickly. + +It seemed to him, at first, that the air was full of monstrous birds. +Actually, there were only three of them--Mr. and Mrs. Robin and a +neighbor of theirs. But to Sandy they looked six times as big as they +really were. _That_ was because they had caught him robbing the nest. + +He was so startled that he dropped the eggs. They fell back into the +nest--all except one, which broke upon the ground beneath the tree. + +"Robber!" Mrs. Robin screamed. + +"Thief!" Mr. Robin roared. + +"Villain!" their neighbor cried. + +It is a wonder they didn't fly straight at Sandy and knock him off the +limb. + +At first he was too frightened to say a word. But when he saw that he +wasn't hurt, Sandy looked down at the broken egg and said: + +"What a pity!" He meant it, too. For he thought it was a shame to waste a +perfectly good egg like that, when he might have eaten it. + +"You don't mean you're sorry, do you?" Mrs. Robin asked him. + +"Certainly I am!" Sandy told her. "I was just counting your eggs. And +when you startled me, I dropped that one. I thought it must be a hawk, +you all made such a noise." + +"You're sure you weren't going to eat our eggs?" Mr. Robin inquired. + +"Eat them!" Sandy exclaimed. "Why, my mother has often told me not to eat +birds' eggs." + +When he heard that, Mr. Robin whispered something to his wife. And then +he said to Sandy Chipmunk: + +"You go home! And don't let me catch you around this tree again!" + +Sandy was glad to escape so easily as that. And though he was sorry to +have missed a good meal, there was one thing that made him almost +happy: He didn't have to bother to wipe his mouth before he let his +mother see him. + + + + +IV + +BUILDING A HOUSE + + +There came a day when Sandy Chipmunk decided that he was old enough and +big enough to make a house of his own. He was not the sort of person to +think and think about a thing and put off the doing of it from one day to +another. So the moment the idea of a house popped into his head Sandy +Chipmunk began hunting for a good place to dig. + +It was not long before he found a bit of ground that seemed to him the +very best spot for a home that any one could want. + +The place where he intended to make his front door was in the middle of a +smooth plot among some beech trees. Farmer Green's cows had clipped the +grass short all around. And Sandy knew that he could have a neat dooryard +without being obliged to go to the trouble of cutting the grass himself. +But what he liked most of all about the place was that as he stood there +he could look all around in every direction. That was just what he +wanted, because whenever he wished to leave his new house he would be +able to peep out and see whether anybody was waiting to catch him. + +So Sandy Chipmunk took off his little, short coat, folded it carefully, +and laid it down upon the grass. Then he pulled off his necktie and +unbuttoned his collar. Just because he was going to dig in the ground +there was no reason why he should get his clothes dirty. + +After that Sandy Chipmunk set to work. And you should have seen how he +made the earth fly. When night came and he had to stop working there was +a big heap of dirt beneath the beech trees, to show how busy Sandy had +been. There was a big hole in the pasture, too. But it was nothing at +all, compared with the hole Sandy had dug by the time he had finished +his house. + +Every morning Sandy Chipmunk came back to the grove of beech trees to +work upon his new house. And it was not many days before his burrow was +so deep that when winter came the ground about his chamber would not +freeze. It was what Farmer Green would have called "below frost-line." + +You must not think it was an easy matter for Sandy Chipmunk to dig a +home. You must remember that somehow he had to bring the dirt out of his +tunnel to the top of the ground. And he did that by _pushing it ahead of +him with his nose_. + +You may laugh when you hear that. But for Sandy Chipmunk it was no +laughing matter. If _he_ had laughed, just as likely as not he would have +found his mouth full of dirt. And you can understand that that wouldn't +have been very pleasant. + +As it was, his face was very dirty. But he never went back to his +mother's house until he had washed it carefully, just as a cat washes her +face. + +Sometimes Sandy found stones in his way, down there beneath the pasture. +And those he had to push up, too. Sometimes a stone was too big to crowd +through the opening into the world outside. And then Sandy had to make +the opening bigger. After he had done that, and pushed the stone out upon +his dirt-pile, he would make his doorway smaller again by packing earth +firmly into it. + +You must not suppose that when Sandy brought the loose dirt and stones up +through his doorway he left them there. Not at all! He pushed all the +litter some distance away. And whenever he turned, to scamper down into +his burrow again, he would kick behind him, as hard as he could, to +scatter the dirt still further from his new house. + +After Sandy had made himself a chamber where he could sleep, and where he +could store enough food to last him throughout the winter, any one would +naturally imagine that his house was finished. But Sandy Chipmunk was not +yet satisfied with his new home. There was still something else that he +wanted to do to it. + + + + +V + +MRS. CHIPMUNK IS GLAD + + +After Sandy Chipmunk had dug his chamber underneath Farmer Green's +pasture, he liked the _inside_ of his house quite well. But the looks of +the _outside_ did not please him at all. He wanted a neat dooryard. And +how could he have that, with that yawning hole through which he had +pushed earth and stones, which still littered the grass a little +distance away? + +Luckily, Sandy knew exactly what to do. So he set to work to close the +big work-hole. It was no easy task--as you can believe. But at last he +managed to pack the hole full of dirt. + +Then he had no door at all. And there he was in the dark, inside the +hall that led to his chamber and storeroom. But that did not worry Sandy. +You see, he knew just what he was about. And before long he had dug a new +doorway--a small, neat, round hole, which you would probably have walked +right past, without noticing it, it was so hard to see in the grass that +grew thickly about it. + +You might think that at last Sandy's house was finished. But he was not +satisfied with it until he had made still another doorway, in the same +fashion. He knew that it was safer to have an extra door through which he +could slip out when some enemy was entering by the other one. Then Sandy +Chipmunk's house was finished. And he was greatly pleased with it. + +But his work was not yet done. He had to furnish his chamber. So he began +to hunt about for dry leaves, to make him a bed. These he stuffed into +his cheek-pouches and carried into his house. But he didn't march proudly +up to one of his two doors. Oh, no! He reached it by careful leaps and +bounds. And when he left home again he was particular to go in the same +manner in which he had come. + +It made no difference which of his doors Sandy used. He always came and +went like that, because he didn't want to wear a path to either of his +two doors or tramp down the grass around them. If he had been so careless +as to let people notice where he lived he would have been almost sure to +have enemies prowling about his house. And if a weasel had happened to +see one of Sandy's neat doorways he would have pushed right in, in the +hope of finding Sandy inside his house. + +In that case the weasel would probably have pushed out again, with Sandy +inside _him_. So you can understand that Sandy Chipmunk had the best of +reasons for being careful. + +After he had made a soft, warm bed for himself, Sandy set to work to +gather nuts and grain, to store in his house and eat during the winter. +He was particular to choose only well cured (or dried) food, for he knew +that that was the only sort that would keep through the long winter, down +in his underground storeroom. + +He gathered other food, too, besides nuts and grain. Near Farmer Green's +house he found some plump sunflower seeds, which he added to his store. +Then there were wild-cherry pits, too, which the birds had dropped upon +the ground. All these, and many other kinds of food, found their way into +Sandy Chipmunk's home. + +Much as he liked such things to eat--and especially sunflower seeds--he +never ate a single nut or grain or seed while he gathered them for his +winter's food. And when you stop to remember that he had to carry +everything home in his _mouth_, you can see that Sandy Chipmunk had what +is called self-control. + +His mother had always told him that he couldn't get through a winter +without that. And so, when Sandy brought her to see his new home, after +it was all finished, and his bed was neatly made, and his storeroom full +of food, Mrs. Chipmunk was delighted. + +"I'm glad to see--" she said--"I'm glad to see that all my talking has +done some good." + + + + +VI + +SAMPLES OF WHEAT + + +There was so much said about Sandy Chipmunk's store of nuts and grain +that a few of the forest-people began to wish they had some of Sandy's +winter food for themselves. Uncle Sammy Coon, an old scamp who lived over +near the swamp, was one of those who began to plan to get Sandy's hoard +away from him. + +It was the grain that Uncle Sammy wanted. If he had spent in honest work +one-half the time he used in planning some trickery he would have been +much better off. But he hated work more than anything else in the world. + +Uncle Sammy Coon scarcely slept at all for several days, he was so busy +thinking about Sandy's grain. And since he always passed his nights in +wandering through the woods, he became almost ill. + +The trouble was, Uncle Sammy was far too big to crawl inside Sandy's +house. And he knew that the only way he could get at the grain was to +persuade somebody to bring it outside for him. + +At last he thought of a fine scheme. And as soon as it came into his head +he hobbled over to Sandy Chipmunk's home. I say _hobbled_, because Uncle +Sammy had a lame knee. He always claimed that he was injured in battle. +But almost every one knew that he hurt his knee one time when Farmer +Green caught him stealing a hen. + +When he reached the pasture Uncle Sammy found Sandy Chipmunk just +starting away to hunt for nuts. + +[Illustration: He Dropped the Grain in Front of Uncle Sammy] + +"Good morning!" the old fellow said. He spoke very pleasantly, though he +was so sleepy that he felt disagreeable enough. "I've come over to buy +something from your store." + +"My store!" Sandy Chipmunk exclaimed. + +"Yes!" said Uncle Sammy Coon. "I've heard you have a store here with a +heap of nuts and grain to sell." + +Now, it had never occurred to Sandy Chipmunk to _sell_ any of the food he +had gathered for the winter. But when Uncle Sammy put the idea in his +head Sandy rather liked it. + +"I have a fine stock, to be sure," he said. "The nuts are specially good. +How many would you like to buy?" + +But Uncle Sammy Coon told him he didn't want any nuts. + +"I never eat them," he said. "It's grain that I want. And I'll buy as +much as you care to sell.... Bring a sample of it up here," he urged. +"I'd like to see if it's as good as people say." + +So Sandy Chipmunk darted into his house. And soon he appeared again with +his cheek-pouches crammed full of wheat kernels. + +"There!" he cried, when he had dropped the grain in front of Uncle Sammy. +"Just try a little of it! You'll agree with me that it's very fine." + +Uncle Sammy not only tried a little. He gobbled up every single kernel. + +"It seems to me to have a queer taste," he said. "Bring up some more!" + +And Sandy scurried down into his house again, to bob up in a few moments +with another sample of his grain. + +Once more Uncle Sammy ate it all. + +"It's a bit damp," he remarked, as he smacked his lips. "I hope it's not +moldy.... You'd better let me see another sample." + +Uncle Sammy declared the next heap of kernels to be altogether too dry. +And he kept ordering Sandy to fetch more for him to "taste," as he called +it. Some of the wheat he considered too ripe, and some too green. Some of +the kernels--so he said--were too little, and others too big. And finally +he even told Sandy Chipmunk that he was afraid Sandy was trying to sell +him _last year's_ wheat. + +Now, Sandy knew that his wheat was fresh--all of it. So he went down and +brought up still another load. + +Uncle Sammy ate that more slowly, for by this time he had had a good +meal. + +"How do you like it?" Sandy asked him. + +"It's fair," Uncle Sammy replied. "But I believe it's _next year's_ +wheat. And of course I wouldn't think of buying that kind.... I guess I +can't trade with you, after all." And he started to hobble away. + +When Sandy heard that, and saw the old fellow leaving, he began to scold. + +"Aren't you going to pay me for what you've eaten?" he asked. + +"What! Pay you for the samples?" Uncle Sammy asked. "I guess, young man, +you don't know much about keeping a store. Nobody ever pays for samples." +And he went away muttering to himself. + +Sandy Chipmunk felt very sad. Uncle Sammy had eaten half his winter's +supply of wheat. + +Sandy was angry, too. And for several days he was busier than ever, +trying to think of some way in which he could make Uncle Sammy Coon pay +him. + + + + +VII + +UNCLE SAMMY'S STORE + + +Not long after Uncle Sammy Coon ate half of Sandy Chipmunk's wheat +without paying for it he seemed to grow lamer than ever. And he walked +less than ever, too. A good many of the forest-folk said that he really +wasn't any lamer--but he was lazier. + +However that may have been, he began to stay at home a good deal of the +time. And finally Sandy Chipmunk heard that Uncle Sammy had opened a +store, in which he kept all sorts of good things to eat. + +When Sandy learned that he lost no time in going over to Uncle Sammy's +house near the swamp. + +Sure enough! There he found Uncle Sammy sitting behind a long table. And +behind him were shelves loaded with apples, pears, corn, nuts and many +other kinds of food. + +"I'd like to buy some nuts," Sandy Chipmunk told the old gentleman. + +"Nuts?" said Uncle Sammy. "I have some fine nuts." + +"Let me see a sample," Sandy said. + +But Uncle Sammy never stirred. + +"There they are, right on the shelf!" he said. "Look at them all +you want to." + +"I'll eat one and see how I like it," said Sandy Chipmunk. + +But Uncle Sammy shook his head. + +"No!" he replied. "That's the old-fashioned way of keeping a store. I +don't give away any samples." + +When Sandy heard that he was angrier than ever. And he wished he had +never given Uncle Sammy any samples of his wheat. But he knew there was +no use of _appearing angry_. So he smiled and asked: + +"What is the price of your beechnuts?" + +"For one handful, you will have to pay me an ear of corn," Uncle +Sammy said. + +"I'll take a handful," said Sandy. + +Still the old fellow never stirred. + +"Where's your ear of corn?" he inquired. + +"Oh! I'll give you that the next time I pass this way," said Sandy. And +he made up his mind that he would take good care to keep away from Uncle +Sammy's house. + +But Uncle Sammy Coon was too sharp. + +"That won't do at all," he said. "I must have the corn before I give you +the nuts." + +So Sandy Chipmunk stepped to the door. + +"I'll come back soon," he said. And he ran all the way to Farmer Green's +cornfield, to get an ear of green corn. And then he ran all the way back +to Uncle Sammy's house. + +"There!" Sandy said. "There's your ear of corn!" He laid it upon the +table. "Now give me a handful of beechnuts." + +"Step right in and help yourself," Uncle Sammy answered. + +"No!" said Sandy. "You give me the nuts." He knew that Uncle Sammy's +hands were much bigger than his own and would hold more nuts. + +"I should think you might get them," the old scamp grumbled. "I've a lame +knee, you know." + +"But I said a 'handful'--not a 'kneeful,'" Sandy answered. "Of course, if +you don't want this juicy ear of corn, there are others that would like +it." He started to pick the ear of corn off the table when Uncle Sammy +rose quickly. + +"All right!" he cried. "But it's the old-fashioned way; and I don't like +it." Then he gave Sandy a small handful of beechnuts. + +Sandy Chipmunk ate them right on the spot. And he began to feel very +happy. He had noticed that Uncle Sammy tossed the ear of corn into a +basket which stood beneath the table. And the basket was full of corn. +Sandy could reach it just as easily from the front of the table as Uncle +Sammy could from behind it. + +And Sandy Chipmunk had thought all at once of a way to get a good many +nuts away from Uncle Sammy, to pay for all the wheat Uncle Sammy had +eaten. + + + + +VIII + +THE BASKET OF CORN + + +"What are those nuts on the top shelf?" Sandy Chipmunk asked Uncle +Sammy Coon. + +Now, Uncle Sammy had been keeping store so short a time that he didn't +exactly know what was on every one of his shelves. So he wheeled around +and looked up. And as soon as his back was turned, Sandy Chipmunk reached +down under the table and pulled an ear of corn out of the big basket. + +"They're butternuts," Uncle Sammy said. "And they're the same price as +the beechnuts." + +"Give me one handful," Sandy said. + +"_Give_ you a handful--" Uncle Sammy snapped. + +But Sandy Chipmunk smiled at him. + +"I mean, _sell_ me a handful," he explained. "And here's your ear of +corn." It really was Uncle Sammy's ear of corn, you know--just as +Sandy said. + +But Uncle Sammy didn't know that. He didn't know it had come out of his +own basket. So he threw it into the basket and set a handful of +butternuts before Sandy Chipmunk. + +Sandy was longer eating those, for the shells were harder and thicker +than the beechnut shells. But in a little while he was ready for more. + +"How about your chestnuts?" he asked. + +And Uncle Sammy turned his back again. + +"I have a few," he said. + +"I'll buy a handful," Sandy told him, as he pulled another ear of corn +out of the basket. + +And after that Sandy bought hickory nuts and hazelnuts and walnuts. + +"How about peanuts?" he asked then. "I've never eaten any; but I've heard +they are very good." + +Uncle Sammy stood up and searched his shelves very carefully. And while +he was searching, Sandy Chipmunk took six ears of green corn out of the +big basket under the table. + +"I don't seem to have any peanuts," Uncle Sammy Coon said at last. + +"Well--have you any nutmegs?" Sandy inquired. + +And while Uncle Sammy was looking for nutmegs, Sandy Chipmunk slyly took +six more ears from the basket. He had more corn now than he could carry. +So he quickly tossed it out through the doorway. + +[Illustration: Uncle Sammy Searched His Shelves Carefully] + +Uncle Sammy Coon had to admit at last that he had no nutmegs. But Sandy +kept him busy hunting for almonds and Brazil nuts and pecans, though he +knew well enough that nothing of the sort grew in those woods. + +By the time Uncle Sammy stopped looking there was no more corn left in +his basket. But there was a great pile of corn on the ground just outside +his door, where Sandy Chipmunk had thrown it. + +Then Sandy said he must be going. And long before Uncle Sammy stirred out +of his house Sandy had carried the corn away and hid it in a good, safe +place. He thought that if he left it to dry it would make just as good +food for winter as the wheat Uncle Sammy had eaten. And that was just +what happened. + +That night, long after Sandy Chipmunk had left the store, Uncle Sammy +Coon had a great surprise. When he went to the basket, to get some green +corn for his supper, there was not a single ear there. + +"That's queer!" Uncle Sammy Coon exclaimed. "It was full this afternoon. +And now there's not an ear left. I don't remember eating it." He thought +deeply for a long time. And after a while he said to himself: "I wonder +if it could have been that Chipmunk boy?" But he decided that Sandy was +too small to have carried away all those big ears under his very nose. "I +must have eaten it," he told himself. "I'm getting terribly forgetful." + +And since he thought he had already had his supper, Uncle Sammy Coon went +to bed without any supper at all. + + + + +IX + +WORKING FOR MR. CROW + + +Old Mr. Crow had decided that he would not fly south to spend the +winter. He said he was getting almost too old for such a long journey. +And he remembered, too, that he had heard the weather was going to be +mild that winter. + +"There's just one thing that worries me," he told Aunt Polly Woodchuck +one day, when he was talking the matter over with her. "I don't know what +I shall have to eat." + +"Why, you can sleep until spring, just as I do," Aunt Polly said. "Then +you won't want anything to eat." + +But Mr. Crow said he was a light sleeper and that he could no more sleep +the whole winter long than Aunt Polly could fly. + +"Then why don't you store up some corn, the way the squirrels do?" she +asked him. There was one thing about Aunt Polly--she always had a remedy +for everything. + +"That's a good idea!" Mr. Crow told her. "Maybe I can get somebody to +help me, too." + +And that very day he went to Sandy Chipmunk and asked him if he didn't +want to gather some food for him. + +"How much will you pay me?" Sandy asked him. + +"I'll give you half what you gather for me," said Mr. Crow. "And that's +certainly fair, I'm sure. It's often done. And it's called 'working at +the halves.'" + +It seemed fair to Sandy Chipmunk, too. + +"That's a bargain," he said. "I'll begin right away. Where do you want me +to hide the food for you, Mr. Crow?" + +Old Mr. Crow told Sandy to put it in his house in the top of the tall elm +tree. + +"I don't like to climb so high," Sandy objected. "You know I'm not so +good a climber as Frisky Squirrel. He wouldn't mind climbing up to your +house. But it might make me dizzy." + +"Well," said Mr. Crow, "why don't you bring the food to the foot of my +tree and get Frisky Squirrel to carry it to the top?" + +"I'll do it," said Sandy Chipmunk--"if Frisky is willing." So he went off +to find Frisky Squirrel, who proved to be much interested in the plan. + +"How much will you pay me?" he asked Sandy Chipmunk. + +"I suppose you ought to have half the food," Sandy said. "That's what +Mr. Crow is paying me." + +Frisky Squirrel said that that seemed fair. So they set to work at once. +And every time Sandy brought a load of food to the foot of the tall elm, +where Mr. Crow lived, he found Frisky Squirrel waiting for him. + +"Let's see--" Frisky said, when Sandy brought the first load--"since I'm +to get half, I'll take everything you bring in your left cheek-pouch. And +you can take what you bring in the right one." + +Sandy Chipmunk said that that seemed fair. So each time he came to the +elm he left with Frisky only what he carried in his left cheek-pouch. And +before gathering more food he scampered home to store away his own share. + +So the day passed. And when evening came, and the sun was dropping out +of sight in the west, Sandy and Frisky decided they had worked long +enough for Mr. Crow. + +"Don't you suppose he has enough food by this time?" Sandy asked. He +looked up at Mr. Crow's house. "We mustn't fill his house too full," he +said. "He has to have room for himself, you know." + +"I don't think he'll have any trouble getting inside it," Frisky +Squirrel answered. + +"Well--I'm glad you helped me," Sandy told him. "If it didn't make me +dizzy to climb so high I'd like to take a look at Mr. Crow's food. I hope +he'll be pleased." + +"I hope he will," Frisky Squirrel agreed. + +Sandy Chipmunk noticed that Frisky Squirrel was smiling. But he thought +that it was only because he was thinking about Mr. Crow, and how happy +he would be. + +"Let's wait here till he comes home," Sandy suggested. + +But Frisky Squirrel said that he was going to bed early that night, +because he expected to have a race with the sun the next morning. + +"I'm going to try to beat him," he explained. "I'm going to see if I +can't get up before he does." + +So Frisky said good-night and left Sandy to wait for Mr. Crow alone. + + + + +X + +MR. CROW SCOLDS SANDY + + +When he finally reached home, after Sandy Chipmunk had been working for +him all day, Mr. Crow was feeling very pleasant. You know, he thought +that his winter's food must be in his house. And that alone is enough to +make any one happy. But what Mr. Crow liked most about his bargain was +the fact that he wouldn't have to pay Sandy for his work. He had said to +Sandy: "I'll agree to give you half what you gather for me." And Sandy +Chipmunk had never stopped to think that that was not any pay at all. For +he might have gathered the food for himself, and had all, instead of +only half of it. As it was, Sandy Chipmunk was paying himself for working +for Mr. Crow. And Mr. Crow seemed to be the only one that was wise enough +to know it. + +Mr. Crow dropped down upon the ground beside Sandy Chipmunk. + +"Well," he said, "have you finished?" + +"Yes!" Sandy answered. "And I hope you'll like what I've done. I'll wait +here until you fly up to your house and look at the food." + +"All right!" Mr. Crow told him. He flapped his big, black wings. And soon +he had risen to the top of the tall elm. + +Sandy watched him as he looked inside his house. At first Mr. Crow only +stared--and said nothing. And then--to Sandy's astonishment--he began to +scold. + +"What's the trouble?" Sandy Chipmunk called. + +"Trouble?" Mr. Crow cried, as he flew down again. "There's trouble +enough. Why, you haven't kept your bargain!" + +Sandy Chipmunk declared that he had done exactly as he had agreed. + +"I brought load after load of food to the foot of this tree," +he explained. "Half of it I took for myself--just as you suggested. Of +course, I had to pay Frisky Squirrel for helping me. I paid him half the +food for carrying it up to your house." + +"That's it!" Mr. Crow cried. "That's the trouble! You took half and +Frisky Squirrel took half. So of course there was no food left for me. +There are two halves in a whole, you know." + +"You must be mistaken," Sandy told him politely. "There's only _one_ half +in my hole. I put my half there myself, and I ought to know." + +Mr. Crow looked as if he thought Sandy Chipmunk must be playing a trick +on him. But pretty soon he saw that it was not so. + +"You don't seem to understand," Mr. Crow said. "I don't believe you've +ever studied fractions." + +Sandy Chipmunk admitted that he never had. + +"Ah!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "This is what comes of hiring stupid people +to work for one. Here I've wasted all my corn. And I get nothing for it +but trouble." + +"Corn!" Sandy Chipmunk exclaimed. "I don't know anything about any corn!" + +"Well, you certainly are stupid!" Mr. Crow told him crossly. "Didn't you +spend the whole day gathering corn for me?" + +"No, indeed!" Sandy replied. "I gathered beechnuts, Mr. Crow." + +"Beechnuts!" Mr. Crow repeated. "I never told you I wanted _nuts_. I'd +starve, trying to live on nuts; for they don't agree with me at all. And +I make it a rule never to eat them. _Corn_ is what I want." + +"You didn't say so," Sandy Chipmunk said. "You asked me to gather _food_ +for you. And every one knows there's no better food than beechnuts to +last through the winter." + +"That--" said Mr. Crow--"that is where we do not agree. I supposed you +knew I wanted corn. But there's no great harm done, anyhow," he added. +"Tomorrow you can gather _corn_ for me--now that you know what I want. No +doubt you can get Frisky Squirrel to help you again. But you must pay him +with _your_ share of the corn--not with mine." + +"But then there wouldn't be any left for me," Sandy objected. + +"But just think of all the beechnuts you have," Mr. Crow reminded him. + +Sandy Chipmunk shook his head. "I'm afraid I'm too stupid to work for +you any more," he told Mr. Crow. + +"Oh! I didn't mean what I said," Mr. Crow hastened to explain. + +"Then--" Sandy said--"then how do I know that you mean what you say when +you tell me you want corn to eat?" + +And Mr. Crow could find no answer to that. He was disappointed, too. For +he was afraid he would have to go south to spend the winter, after all. + + + + +XI + +THE MAIL-BOX + + +Climbing an oak at the cross-roads one day, not far from Farmer Green's +house, Sandy Chipmunk discovered a queer box nailed to the trunk of the +tree. Much as he wanted to, he couldn't look inside the box, because its +lid was closed. And since Sandy was afraid the box might be some sort of +trap, he didn't dare go near it and poke at the lid. + +Later that day Sandy told Frisky Squirrel about the strange box. And +Frisky told Fatty Coon. And Fatty Coon told somebody else. + +So the news traveled, until at last it reached the sharp ears of old Mr. +Crow. + +By the time Mr. Crow heard the story it had grown amazingly. And it went +something like this: Farmer Green had bought a new trap in the village. +And he had nailed it on a tree to catch all sorts of animals and birds. +And after he had caught all the forest-folk in Pleasant Valley he +intended to take the trap to Swift River and set it for fish and eels +and turtles. + +When Mr. Crow heard the news he _haw-hawed_ loudly. + +"What are you laughing about?" Jasper Jay asked him. (It was Jasper who +repeated the story to Mr. Crow.) "You wouldn't think it was such a joke +if you were caught in the trap." + +"Trap!" Mr. Crow sneered. "That's no trap. That's what's called a +_mail-box_. Every day a man with letters and newspapers drives over here +from the village. And he stops at the cross-roads and leaves something in +the box for Farmer Green." + +As soon as he heard that, Jasper Jay flew away to tell everybody about +the mail-box. And at last Sandy Chipmunk heard the story. But by the time +it reached his ears--after it had been told by one person to another +almost forty times--the story was somewhat different from what it had +been when Mr. Crow first told it to Jasper Jay. This is what Sandy heard: +The thing on the tree was a mailbox. Every day a man drove from the +village in a wagon drawn by twelve horses. He had a load of letters as +big as six haystacks. And he left a handful of letters in that box, +because he wanted to get rid of them so he could go back to the village +for more. And any one could take a letter--if it happened to be for him. + +It was Frisky Squirrel who told the story to Sandy. Of course, after so +much telling it had changed a good deal. But Sandy Chipmunk didn't know +that. And he hurried to the cross-roads at once, to watch for the man +driving the twelve horses. + +When he reached the oak, where the box was, Sandy climbed the tree and +perched himself on a limb and waited. He had not sat there long before he +saw a man drive up the road. Sandy Chipmunk was surprised when the man +stopped beneath the tree and dropped some letters and newspapers into the +box. He was surprised because the man drove only one horse, instead of +twelve. And the man had only a single bag of mail in his wagon, instead +of a great heap--as big as six haystacks. + +Sandy Chipmunk was somewhat disappointed. But he was glad of one thing: +The man left the lid of the box open. And as soon as he had driven on +again, Sandy crept down the tree and crawled right inside the mail-box. + +Though he was not expecting a letter from anybody, he thought it would be +just as well to look and see if the man had left one for him. + +Now, Sandy had never learned to read. And you might think it would do him +no good at all to look at the envelopes. But he soon came upon one which +he was sure was his. And the reason for that was that he had found an +envelope with the picture of a chipmunk in one corner of it! + +That was enough for Sandy. + +"I'm glad I came!" he said to himself. "Here's a letter for me! And how +surprised everybody will be!" + +So he took the letter in his mouth and started down the tree. + +The very first person he surprised was Farmer Green himself. He had +walked to the cross-roads from his house. And he had almost reached the +oak when he saw Sandy Chipmunk spring from the tree to the stone wall, +with a letter in his mouth, and scamper away. + +Farmer Green ran after Sandy. And he threw stones at him. But Sandy +Chipmunk ran so fast that Farmer Green soon lost sight of him. + +"I'd like to know what was in that letter," Farmer Green said, when he +told his family what had happened. "I'll have to warn the letter-carrier +to be sure to close the mail-box after this, for I can't have any more of +my letters stolen." + +Johnnie Green couldn't help laughing, when he heard his father tell about +the chipmunk running away with a letter in his mouth. + +[Illustration: "Here's a Letter for Me!" Said Sandy Chipmunk] + +But Farmer Green didn't seem to see anything to laugh at. + +"I only hope," he said, "the letter was nothing of importance." + + + + +XII + +SANDY GETS A LETTER + + +After Sandy Chipmunk, with the letter in his mouth, escaped from Farmer +Green, he ran home and showed his letter to everybody he met. He felt +very proud. + +"See!" he said. "There was a letter for me in the mail-box. It's lucky I +found it when I did, for I believe Farmer Green would have taken it if I +hadn't reached the box before him." + +Old Mr. Crow laughed mockingly when Sandy called to him that he had a +letter. + +"I see you _have_ one," Mr. Crow said. "But the question is, to whom does +it really belong? If the truth were known, I guess that letter rightfully +belongs to a farmer named Green." + +That remark made Sandy angry. + +"The letter belongs to me!" he told Mr. Crow. "Here's my picture on it. +You can see for yourself." + +Now, Mr. Crow could not read either--for all he was so old. And when he +saw the picture of a chipmunk on the envelope, exactly like Sandy, he was +very much surprised. + +"Why don't you open your letter?" he asked. + +"I hadn't thought of that," Sandy replied. So he tore open the envelope +and pulled out a paper. + +"It's certainly for me," he said, "for here's my picture again. But I'd +like to know why these other people have their pictures in _my_ letter. +They've no business in _my_ letter!" + +Mr. Crow looked over Sandy's shoulder--which was not at all a polite +thing to do. + +"That's queer!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "There's one of the Red-Squirrel boys +and Mrs. Mouse's son. And this young chap here looks a lot like Rinaldo +Rat. ... I'd be pretty angry if anybody sent me a letter like that," Mr. +Crow then said. + +Now, the real trouble with Mr. Crow was that he was jealous because Sandy +Chipmunk had a letter, while _he_ had none. + +"I'd throw that letter away, if it was mine," remarked Mr. Crow. And he +said so much that at last Sandy Chipmunk tossed the letter away and went +off to hunt for birds' eggs. + +As soon as Sandy was out of sight, Mr. Crow picked up the letter and flew +home with it. + +He felt better--because at last he had a letter, while Sandy Chipmunk no +longer had one. + +That very afternoon Farmer Green drove to the village. And on his way he +stopped at the houses of several of his neighbors, to talk about the +weather and the crops. And each one of them showed him a letter that had +come that day, telling all about a new kind of poison, to rid a farmer of +chipmunks and red squirrels and rats and mice. + +"Sprinkle our powder around your corn-crib," the letter said, "and these +little rodents will trouble you no longer." + +"I declare!" cried Farmer Green at last. "I seem to be the only person in +the neighborhood that didn't get one of those letters." Then he happened +to remember the letter Sandy Chipmunk had carried away in his mouth. "It +must have been that letter that the chipmunk stole out of my mail-box!" +Farmer Green said. And that night, when he reached home and told his +family about the letter, his son Johnnie laughed harder than ever. + +"That must be a wise chipmunk!" Johnnie Green exclaimed. "I wish I could +catch him and put him in my squirrel cage." + +"I wish he'd leave my mail alone," said Farmer Green. "The next thing we +know, he'll be taking my newspaper to read. And maybe he'll come right +into the house and borrow my spectacles." + +Johnnie Green seemed to think his father was joking. And perhaps he was. + +What do you think about it? + + + + +XIII + +A RIDE TO THE MILLER'S + + +Do you know about the time Johnnie Green and his grandmother and Sandy +Chipmunk started for the miller's with a sack of wheat to be ground? If +you never heard the story, this is the way it happened--and if you _have_ +heard it, it happened this way, just the same: + +Farmer Green's wife had noticed that the flour in her flour-barrel was +getting low. So one morning Farmer Green pulled a wagon from under a shed +and set a big bag of wheat in it, behind the seat. Then he went into the +house to get a piece of string with which to tie the bag. Farmer Green +hadn't seen a pair of bright eyes that were watching him from the fence +near-by. And he didn't know that as soon as he started to cross the +barnyard, Sandy Chipmunk stole up to the wagon, climbed into it, and +crept inside the open bag of wheat. + +Now, Sandy had not had his breakfast. So he began at once to eat heartily +of the wheat kernels, believing that after he had had a good meal it +would be time enough to think of carrying some of the wheat away to his +house. He only hoped that no one would take the bag away until he had +removed _all_ the wheat. There was enough of it--he was sure--to last him +for any number of winters. + +Now, you must not think that Sandy was greedy, because he wanted all that +wheat. He intended all the time to leave the _bag_ for Farmer Green. + +The wheat tasted so good that Sandy Chipmunk could think of nothing +else. So he never heard Johnnie Green's father when he came back from +the house. And before Sandy knew what was happening, Farmer Green had +reached into the wagon, drawn the mouth of the bag together, and tied it +hard and fast. + +There was Sandy Chipmunk, inside the bag. And he was so frightened that +he couldn't eat another mouthful. He just shivered and shook, while +Farmer Green went into the barn, led out an old, slow horse called +Ebenezer, and harnessed him to the wagon. + +Then Johnnie Green and his grandmother came out and seated themselves in +the wagon. Farmer Green gave Johnnie the reins; and Ebenezer started +jogging down the road toward the miller's, with Johnnie's old straw hat +and his grandmother's sunbonnet bobbing from side to side, and up and +down, and backwards and forwards, as the wagon jolted over ruts and +stones and thank-you-ma'ams--which were small ridges built across the +road, to turn the water into the ditch when it rained. + +Cowering inside the bag, Sandy Chipmunk thought the earth was rocking, +for he had never ridden in a wagon before. + +Although the sack was a stout one, Sandy could easily have gnawed his way +through it if he had not been too frightened to try. And there he stayed, +while all the time old Ebenezer kept plodding along toward the +grist-mill. + +Johnnie Green and his grandmother, talking so near him, only alarmed +Sandy all the more. And he thought he could not be more scared than he +was. But all at once the wagon lurched forward and Grandmother Green +screamed. And Johnnie began to cry "Whoa! whoa!" in a loud voice. + +Then Sandy Chipmunk began to shake harder than ever. He had no idea what +was happening. + + + + +XIV + +A LUCKY ACCIDENT + + +It was really no wonder that Johnnie Green's grandmother screamed, when +she and Johnnie and Sandy Chipmunk were on their way to the miller's to +get the wheat ground into flour. + +This was what made the good old lady scream: The ancient horse, Ebenezer, +was picking his way slowly down a steep hill, placing one foot carefully +in front of another, and taking pains not to step on the stones in the +road, so he wouldn't fall. + +What happened was not Ebenezer's fault at all. You see, he was wearing an +old harness. And just as he was on the steepest part of the hill a strap +broke and the wagon rolled right upon his heels. + +Now, many horses would have kicked and run, if such a thing had happened +to them. But even when Johnnie's grandmother screamed, old Ebenezer was +not at all frightened. And even when Johnnie cried "Whoa! whoa!" Ebenezer +did not stop. He thought he knew a good deal more about what he ought to +do than Johnnie Green did, for he had been pulling a wagon for almost +twenty years before Johnnie Green was born. + +Johnnie tugged hard upon the reins. But still old Ebenezer went on +picking his way even more slowly. And he never stopped until he reached +the bottom of the hill. Then he stood stock still; and he looked around +at Johnnie Green, as if to say, "There, young man! I've brought you and +your grandma safe down that hill. And _now_ I'll let you get out of the +wagon, if you want to." + +Well, Johnnie Green jumped down from his seat and looked at the harness. + +"Dear me!" his grandmother said. "If we only had a piece of string you +could mend the harness so we could get to the miller's, at least." + +Johnnie felt in all his pockets. And probably that was the first time he +had ever found himself without plenty of string. There were enough other +things in his pockets--a jackknife and nails, an apple and a lump of +maple sugar, an old broken watch and a willow whistle. But not a single +piece of string could Johnnie Green find. + +Then he happened to think of the string his father had used to tie up the +sack of wheat. Johnnie stood the sack on end, tipped it against the back +of the seat, so the wheat wouldn't fall out, and unwound the string from +the mouth of the bag. + +He had hardly begun to tie the harness together when Grandmother Green +screamed again. + +The horse Ebenezer looked around once more, as if to say, "I wonder +what's come over the old lady." + +And Johnnie Green turned his head, too. + +"My goodness!" his grandmother said. "Did you see that? Something ran +right up my back and jumped off my shoulder. There it goes now!" She +pointed at a small object which was scurrying through the roadside fence. +"Why, it was a chipmunk, I do believe!" she cried. "Now, where do you +suppose he came from?" + +Johnnie Green didn't know. And to tell the truth, he didn't much care. +You see, he felt very proud, mending the harness with nobody to help +him. And he was not interested in chipmunks just then. + +So Sandy escaped. To be sure, he was so far from home that he didn't know +where he was. But he was so glad to get out of the sack of wheat that he +didn't worry about being lost. He thought he could find some one who +would know where Farmer Green's pasture was. + + + + +XV + +THE ROWDY OF THE WOODS + + +One of the most quarrelsome of all Sandy Chipmunk's neighbors was Rowdy +Red-Squirrel. He was happiest when he was fighting. But perhaps that was +because he had never lost a fight. If Rowdy had had a sound beating, +maybe fighting would not have seemed so pleasant to him. + +Ever since Rowdy whipped Frisky Squirrel, who (being a gray squirrel) was +bigger than he was, Rowdy bullied every squirrel in the neighborhood--no +matter what color he might be. As for chipmunks, Rowdy Red-Squirrel +boasted that he could whip six chipmunks at a time. + +"That is, I could if they would stand still," he said. "Of course, if +they ran off in six different directions it might be a hard thing to do." + +Rowdy was talking to Jasper Jay, who sat in a tree not far away. His +boasting amused Jasper. First Jasper smiled. Then he laughed aloud. And +after that he gave a hoarse shriek, which rang through the woods most +unpleasantly. At least, that was what Rowdy Red-Squirrel thought. + +"What's the joke?" he asked. + +"The joke?" Jasper answered. "Why--ha! ha!--_you_ are the joke! I don't +believe you can whip _one_ chipmunk. And when you talk of whipping _six_, +I can't help laughing." + +"You wouldn't laugh if I could catch you," Rowdy Red-Squirrel growled. +And if he hadn't known that Jasper Jay would fly away, he would have +jumped into Jasper's tree and chased him. + +"You mustn't expect me to believe you can whip _six_ until I've seen you +whip _one_," Jasper went on. "There's Sandy Chipmunk in that beech tree. +Why don't you steal over there and show me whether you can whip him?" + +"I'll do it!" Rowdy cried. "Not that I find much pleasure in fighting a +single chipmunk--for I can whip _one_ with my hands tied behind me." + +"Can you?" Jasper Jay asked. "Then let me see you tie your hands." + +"I can't!" Rowdy Red-Squirrel replied. "Who ever heard of anybody who +could tie his own hands behind him?... _You_ will have to do that for +me," he said. + +Jasper Jay gave another loud shriek and rocked back and forth on the limb +where he sat. + +"Another joke!" he gasped--for he was too clever to be caught like that. +He had no idea of going near enough to Rowdy Red-Squirrel to tie his +hands behind his back. + +"Well, I see I'll have to whip Sandy Chipmunk just as I am," Rowdy +grumbled. "It won't be much fun for me." + +"I don't believe it will," Jasper Jay agreed. + +"After I whip him, you'll have to find six more chipmunks for me, if you +want to see me fight them all at once," Rowdy Red-Squirrel told Jasper +Jay. + +"I'll do it--if you whip Sandy," Jasper promised. And he laughed so hard +that he almost tumbled off the limb. + + + + +XVI + +ROWDY RUNS AWAY + + +Rowdy Red-Squirrel jumped from one tree into another until he reached the +beech tree in which Jasper Jay had caught sight of Sandy Chipmunk. + +Now, Sandy had not seen Rowdy stealing upon him. And the first he knew +about the fight was when he happened to turn around. Then he saw Rowdy +Red-Squirrel right in front of him. And before Sandy could move, Rowdy +had jumped straight at him. + +Now, as you know, Sandy Chipmunk was not the most nimble of climbers. He +was a ground-squirrel; and though he often climbed into the lower +branches of trees, he always felt more comfortable on the top of a +rail-fence or a stone wall. + +But Rowdy Red-Squirrel could cling to the smallest branch. The more it +swayed beneath his weight the better he liked it. His hardest battles had +been fought in the tree-tops. You see, he was never the least bit afraid +of falling. + +Sandy Chipmunk was plucky--as you know. And at first he had no thought of +running away, when Rowdy Red-Squirrel jumped at him. Even when Rowdy sank +his sharp teeth into one of his ears, Sandy fought his hardest. But when +Rowdy pulled on his ear, Sandy's feet almost slipped off the limb. + +Then Sandy tried to get away. And at last he tore his ear out of Rowdy +Red-Squirrel's mouth and scurried quickly to the ground. + +Rowdy Red-Squirrel, dashing after him, shouted with glee. + +"He's running away from me! I've whipped him!" he called to Jasper Jay, +who had come nearer, to see the fight. + +Sandy Chipmunk had reached the stone wall between the woods and the +pasture. And he was still running. But the moment Rowdy Red-Squirrel +sprang upon the wall, to his great surprise Sandy whisked around and +jumped straight at _him_. + +It was Rowdy's turn to be startled. And when Sandy gave his nose a cruel +bite Rowdy turned tail and darted off as fast as he could go. + +After him dashed Sandy Chipmunk. No longer was he afraid of falling. He +was quite at home on the stone wall. He knew every stone in it, and every +nook and cranny. He knew exactly the best way to run along that old +wall. So all he had to think about now was catching Rowdy Red-Squirrel. + +But Rowdy escaped. After he had run a long way he jumped into a tree and +climbed to the very top of it, where Sandy Chipmunk did not care to +follow him. + +"Come down here, if you want to fight," Sandy called to him. + +"You can't fool me," Rowdy answered. "The _other six of you_ are hiding +behind the wall. And the moment I came down you'd all jump at me again. I +said I could whip _six_ chipmunks. But _seven_ are one too many." + +Sandy Chipmunk didn't know what Rowdy was talking about. And he could not +understand what made Jasper Jay laugh so loudly. + +"You played a trick on me!" Rowdy told Jasper Jay. "You had six +chipmunks hidden behind that wall. And as soon as I came down where they +were, they all sprang at me. With Sandy Chipmunk, there were _seven_ of +them. And that's one too many." + +"Ha! ha!" laughed Jasper Jay. "Yes! There's _one too many for you_. Sandy +Chipmunk is _one too many for you_!" And he flew away to tell the joke to +every one. + +You see, Rowdy had been so frightened when Sandy turned and bit his nose +that he actually thought there must be at least seven chipmunks chasing +him. + +Though he boasted just as much afterwards, Rowdy Red-Squirrel never +wanted to fight Sandy Chipmunk again. + + + + +XVII + +CORN-PLANTING TIME + + +It was late in the spring. And Sandy Chipmunk couldn't help wishing it +was late in the fall instead. The reason for that was this: He could find +very little to eat anywhere in Pleasant Valley. It was too early for +fruit or nuts. It was even too early for many insects. And it seemed to +Sandy that all the insects flew much higher than they did when there were +plenty of other things to eat. + +At last Sandy chanced to see Mr. Crow in the woods one day. Mr. Crow was +just about to fly somewhere. He seemed to be in a great hurry. In fact, +he did not want to stop to talk--which was most unusual with him. + +"I can't chat with you to-day," Mr. Crow told Sandy. "I have business to +attend to. It's something I've been expecting for a long time. And I +don't want to be late." + +"Where are you going?" Sandy asked. + +"That--" said Mr. Crow--"that is something that doesn't concern you, +young man." And then he flapped his way through the woods and out of +sight. + +Now, it happened that Sandy Chipmunk remembered at once what Uncle +Jerry Chuck had said a few days before. Uncle Jerry had said that Mr. +Crow had told him Farmer Green was about to plant corn. So Sandy +guessed that Mr. Crow was going to the field where Farmer Green and his +hired man were working. + +"I'll run over there and see what's going on!" Sandy exclaimed. "If +they're planting corn I have just as much right to eat some as Mr. +Crow has." + +Of course, Mr. Crow reached the ploughed field long before Sandy +Chipmunk. It took Mr. Crow no time at all to sail through the air and +drop down at a good, safe distance from where Farmer Green and his hired +man were planting corn. They had already planted several long rows. And +Mr. Crow at once set to work to scratch up the yellow kernels and swallow +them greedily. + +He was enjoying his meal greatly when he caught sight of a small, striped +person busily engaged in doing the very same thing. It was Sandy +Chipmunk! And Mr. Crow hurried over to the row where Sandy was looking +for corn. + +"What are you doing here?" Mr. Crow asked angrily. + +"I might ask you the same question," Sandy answered. + +"You followed me--that's what you did!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "Of all the +prying busybodies I know, you are certainly the worst. This is not your +field; and I shall have to ask you to leave it at once." + +"Oh! I'll leave the field," said Sandy Chipmunk. "I don't want the field. +You can have _that_. All I want is some of the corn. There ought to be +enough for both of us." + +Mr. Crow muttered something about _impertinence_, which Sandy Chipmunk +didn't understand. Then Mr. Crow said: + +"This corn belongs to Farmer Green. Just because I've come to help him, +and because I've scratched up a few of the kernels to see if he's +planting them properly, you seem to think I'm _eating corn_." + +"I certainly do," said Sandy Chipmunk. + +"Well, what an idea!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. + +Strange as it may seem, Farmer Green had the same idea that Sandy +Chipmunk had. He happened to catch sight of old Mr. Crow. And pretty soon +Johnnie Green came hurrying up the field, along the fence. He hoped Mr. +Crow wouldn't see him. + +But old Mr. Crow generally saw any one coming his way--especially if the +person happened to have a gun on his shoulder. + +"I've important business over in the woods," he told Sandy Chipmunk +suddenly. And he flew off in great haste. + +So Sandy stayed and ate all the corn he wanted. He was so small and so +nearly the same color as the ploughed field that Johnnie Green never saw +him at all. + +After that Mr. Crow would scarcely speak to Sandy for several days. He +said that Sandy was a nuisance. + +"A person can't go anywhere without that Chipmunk boy following him," Mr. +Crow complained. "You know, I'm helping Farmer Green plant his corn. And +Sandy Chipmunk followed me to the corn-patch. And what do you think? He +actually began to _eat_ the corn! Now, who ever heard of such a thing?" + +But Mr. Crow fooled nobody but himself. Every one knew that he ate more +of Farmer Green's corn than anybody else unless it was Farmer Green. And +_he_ always waited until it was ripe. + +The trouble with Mr. Crow was this: He didn't want any one but himself to +visit the cornfield. He wanted all the corn for an old gentleman known as +_Mr. Crow_. + + + + +XVIII + +SANDY LIKES MILK + + +Sandy Chipmunk liked milk. He never knew it, though, until he chanced to +come upon a saucerful which some one had set out on the big flat stone +that served as the back doorstep of the farmhouse. + +Sandy crept up and sniffed at the white liquid in the saucer. It smelled +very good. So he tasted it. And it tasted so much better, even, than it +smelled that he drank every drop of it. + +Sandy was sitting on the big stone step, washing his face, when Farmer +Green's cat leaped out of the doorway. + +The cat was very angry. And it was no wonder, because Sandy Chipmunk had +drunk her breakfast. She seemed to think that since Sandy had made away +with her breakfast it would be only fair if she should make away with +_him_. + +[Illustration: Farmer Green's Cat Leaped Out of the Doorway] + +But Sandy did not agree with her at all. Though he had washed only one +side of his face, he jumped sideways off the step and ran and hid in the +woodpile close by. + +You might think he would have had to stay there a long time. For the old +cat crouched down and watched the hole into which Sandy had crawled. She +seemed to have made up her mind to wait there until Sandy came out of +that hole again. + +If she had waited for that to happen she would have been there yet. For +Sandy crept through the woodpile, stole out the other side of it, and ran +home. + +He was glad to get away from the cat. But he was sorry there wasn't more +of that delicious drink which he had found in the saucer. + +Later that day Sandy told Fatty Coon what had happened. + +"I know what that was," Fatty Coon exclaimed. "It was milk." + +"I wonder where Farmer Green gets it," Sandy said. + +"From the cows, of course!" Fatty replied. + +"You don't say so!" Sandy Chipmunk cried. "I'm glad to know it." And he +scampered off across the pasture, toward three of Farmer Green's cows +which were chewing their cuds under the shade of a big maple tree. + +When Sandy asked them if they would please give him some milk to drink +two of the cows (they were the good-natured ones) only smiled at each +other. But the third cow (a surly old creature with long, sharp horns) +told him not to be silly. + +Well, Sandy Chipmunk saw that he could get no milk there. And he was +feeling quite downcast when he chanced to meet Henry Skunk, to whom he +told his troubles. + +"Of course the cows couldn't give you any milk!" Henry Skunk said. "It's +not milking time yet. So what could they do? You go down to the barnyard +late this afternoon and you'll find all the milk you could drink in a +thousand years." + +Sandy Chipmunk thanked him. And somehow he managed to wait until the +afternoon was almost gone. Then he skipped down the hill to Farmer +Green's barn. He thought it must be milking time, because Johnnie Green +and old dog Spot had driven all the cows home. + + + + +XIX + +WHAT THE OLD COW DID + + +When Sandy Chipmunk reached Farmer Green's barn he crept inside and +looked all around. He had expected to find the barn crowded with saucers +full of milk. But not a single saucer did he see. There were two long +rows of cows stabled in the barn. And Sandy noticed Farmer Green and his +boy and his hired man, each sitting on a low stool beside a cow. They +were milking the cows. But Sandy did not know it. + +He began to think that Henry Skunk had played a trick on him. And he was +about to leave the barn when he turned to look at several bright tin +pails standing on the floor. + +Sandy crept up to one of them and sniffed at it. He was glad that he had +done that, for he smelled _milk_. There was no mistake about it. + +Sandy Chipmunk couldn't crawl up the side of the pail, it was so smooth +and slippery. So he jumped right up and stood on its edge. And looking +inside, he saw that the pail was almost full of milk. He knew then that +Henry Skunk had told the truth. + +By bending down Sandy was just able to reach the milk. And he began +drinking it as fast as he could. It was so delicious that he forgot all +about Johnnie Green and his father and the hired man. + +With his head inside the pail, of course Sandy couldn't see what happened +in the barn. The more he drank, the further down he had to stretch his +neck. And when at last he heard a shout, and a milking-stool came sailing +through the air not far above the pail, Sandy was so startled that he +lost his balance and went _plump_! into the milk. + +Luckily, Sandy Chipmunk knew how to swim. So he managed to keep his nose +in the air or he would certainly have drowned. + +"Where on earth did that chipmunk go?" he heard Johnnie Green say as he +picked up his stool. You see, Johnnie never once thought of looking +inside the pail. + +Still, Sandy Chipmunk was in a fix. For the inside of the pail was as +smooth and slippery as the outside. And of course he couldn't _jump_ out, +for there was nothing from which he could spring. + +Now it happened that the pail of milk stood not far behind the surly old +cow that had told Sandy not to be silly, when he asked her for some milk +to drink, in the pasture that day. Johnnie Green's shouting and the stool +hurtling through the air displeased her. And since she was not the sort +to hide her ill nature, she promptly kicked the milkpail over. + +For a moment Sandy Chipmunk thought that this time the end of the world +had certainly come. The old cow's foot crashed against the pail and sent +it flying against the stone wall on which the barn was built. And Sandy +tumbled out upon the floor in a sea of milk. + +He didn't wait to learn exactly what had happened. For as soon as he +could scramble to his feet he dashed out of the barn and tore across the +fields towards the pasture. + +Later, when he reached his house and sat down to rest, he soon forgot +his fright. For he had a very pleasant time licking himself clean. That +was the way Sandy Chipmunk always made himself spick and span. And though +there may be some people who would not consider such an act to be in the +best of taste, Sandy Chipmunk thought what was left of the milk _tasted +very good_. And since his mother did not object to what he was doing, +perhaps no one else ought to. + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Sandy Chipmunk, by Arthur Scott Bailey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK *** + +***** This file should be named 9462.txt or 9462.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/9/4/6/9462/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Tale of Sandy Chipmunk + +Author: Arthur Scott Bailey + +Release Date: December, 2005 [EBook #9462] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 3, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK *** + + + + +Produced by Thanks to Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + + + _SLEEPY-TIME + + + + + THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK + + BY + + ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY + + + + +ILLUSTRATED BY HARRY L. SMITH + + +1916 + + + +[Illustration: Sandy Was So Startled That He Dropped the Eggs] + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER + + I SANDY'S NAME + + II SOMETHING IN THE SKY + + III THE BROKEN EGG + + IV BUILDING A HOUSE + + V MRS. CHIPMUNK IS GLAD + + VI SAMPLES OF WHEAT + + VII UNCLE SAMMY'S STORE + + VIII THE BASKET OF CORN + + IX WORKING FOR MR. CROW + + X MR. CROW SCOLDS SANDY + + XI THE MAIL-BOX + + XII SANDY GETS A LETTER + + XIII A RIDE TO THE MILLER'S + + XIV A LUCKY ACCIDENT + + XV THE ROWDY OF THE WOODS + + XVI ROWDY RUNS AWAY + + XVII CORN-PLANTING TIME + +XVIII SANDY LIKES MILK + + XIX WHAT THE OLD COW DID + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + +SANDY WAS SO STARTLED THAT HE DROPPED THE EGGS + +MRS. CHIPMUNK WENT TO THE DOOR WITH SANDY + +HE DROPPED THE GRAIN IN FRONT OF UNCLE SAMMY + +UNCLE SAMMY SEARCHED HIS SHELVES CAREFULLY + +"HERE'S A LETTER FOR ME!" SAID SANDY CHIPMUNK + +FARMER GREEN'S CAT LEAPED OUT OF THE DOORWAY + + + + +THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK + + + + +I + +SANDY'S NAME + + +In the first place, no doubt you will want to learn why he was known as +_Sandy_. Many others, before you, have wondered how Sandy Chipmunk came +by his name. + +Whenever any one asked Sandy himself why he was so called, he always said +that he was in too great a hurry to stop to explain. And it is a fact +that of all the four-footed folk in Pleasant Valley--and on Blue Mountain +as well--he was one of the busiest. He was a great worker. And when he +played--as he sometimes did--he played just as hard as he worked. + +In spite of his being so busy, there may have been another reason why he +never would tell any one why he was named Sandy. Jimmy Rabbit was the +first to suggest that perhaps Sandy Chipmunk didn't know. + +Jimmy and some of his neighbors were sunning themselves in Farmer Green's +pasture one day. And while they were idling away the afternoon Sandy +Chipmunk scurried past on top of the stone wall, with his cheek-pouches +full of nuts. + +"There goes Sandy Chipmunk!" Jimmy Rabbit exclaimed. He called to Sandy. +But Sandy did not stop. He made no answer, either, beyond a flick of his +tail. You see, his mouth was so full that he couldn't say a word. + +"I was going to ask him about his name," Jimmy Rabbit remarked. "I've +almost made up my mind that he doesn't know any more about it than +anybody else." + +"Probably he doesn't," Fatty Coon agreed. "But it's easy to see why he's +called Sandy. He likes to dig in the _sandy_ soil in this pasture." + +"I don't agree with you," Billy Woodchuck said. "_I_ think he was named +Sandy on account of his yellowish, reddish, brownish color." + +Some of the others thought that Billy might have guessed the right +answer. But Frisky Squirrel told them that that wasn't the reason at all. + +"It's because he's _plucky_," he declared. "You know, _gritty_ is the +same as _plucky_. And _sandy_ is the same as _gritty_. That's the +reason," Frisky said. "It's plain as the nose on your face." He was +looking straight at Tommy Fox as he said that. + +Now, Tommy Fox had a very long nose. And he became angry at once. His +face would have grown red, probably, if it hadn't been that color always. + +"You don't know what you're talking about!" he snapped. + +Old Mr. Crow, who sat in a tree nearby, nodded his head. + +"You're all wrong," he told them. "The reason for calling that young +Chipmunk boy Sandy is because his real name is Alexander. And everybody +who knows anything at all knows that Sandy is just a short way of saying +Alexander." + +When they heard that, Fatty Coon and Billy Woodchuck and Frisky Squirrel +looked foolish. People thought Mr. Crow was a wise old gentleman. And +when he said a thing was so, that usually settled it. + +"Here he comes again!" Mr. Crow said. + +They all looked around. And sure enough! there was Sandy Chipmunk, +hurrying along the top of the wall, to get more nuts to store away for +the winter. + +"Wait a moment!" Mr. Crow called to him. "I want to tell you something." + +Sandy Chipmunk came to a halt and sat up on top of a stone, with his tail +curled over his back. + +"Talk fast, please!" he said. "I'm in a great hurry. Winter will be here +before you know it. And I want to store away a great many nuts before +somebody else gathers them all." + +"I won't keep you long," Mr. Crow told him. "It's about your name--" + +"I've no time to stop to explain," Sandy Chipmunk interrupted. "As I +said, I'm very busy to-day." And he started to scamper along the wall +again. + +Once more Mr. Crow stopped him. + +"You don't understand," he said. "I don't want to _ask_ you anything. I +want to _tell_ you something." + +"Oh!" said Sandy. "That's different. What is it?" + +"It's quite a joke," Mr. Crow said. And he laughed loudly. "These young +fellows here have been trying to tell one another why you're called +Sandy. One of 'em says it's because you like to dig in the sandy soil; +and another says it's because of your color; and still another claims +it's because you're plucky. But I tell 'em it's because your real name is +Alexander. And of course I'm right," said old Mr. Crow. + +Sandy Chipmunk smiled. And then he started off again. And again Mr. Crow +stopped him. + +"Quite a joke on these youngsters--isn't it?" he inquired. + +"You told me you didn't want to _ask_ me anything," Sandy Chipmunk +reminded him. "But I will say this--though I am in a great hurry: So far +as I know, you are all of you right. And that's a joke on you, Mr. Crow." + +Then Sandy Chipmunk scampered off. And everybody laughed--except Mr. +Crow. + +"Alexander Chipmunk is a very pert young man," he grumbled. + + + + +II + +SOMETHING IN THE SKY + + +When Sandy Chipmunk was just a little chap his mother began to teach him +to take care of himself. She told him that among other enemies he must +always watch out for foxes and minks and weasels--especially weasels. + +"They are very dangerous," Mrs. Chipmunk said. + +"Well, I'll always be safe if I climb a tree--won't I?" Sandy asked her. + +"Goodness, no!" his mother replied. "There are many big birds--such as +hawks and owls and eagles--that would catch you if they could.... But +I'll tell you about _them_ some other time, Sandy." + +Well, Sandy Chipmunk went out to play. But he didn't have what you would +call a good time, because he couldn't help thinking of his mother's +warning. He kept looking all around to see whether a weasel or a mink or +a fox might be trying to steal up behind him. And he kept looking up to +make sure that no big bird was ready to swoop down upon him. + +But nothing of the sort happened--at least, not until the middle of the +afternoon. Sandy had begun to believe that his mother was too timid. He +did not think there was anything in Farmer Green's pasture to be afraid +of. There were the cows--nothing seemed to worry _them_. They ate grass, +or chewed their cuds, and never once looked behind them. + +Sandy Chipmunk wandered further and further from home. For a long time he +had not taken the trouble to look at the sky. But at last he glanced up. +And to his great alarm he saw, hovering in the air far above him, an +enormous creature. He had never seen its like before. It seemed all head +and tail. Two great eyes stared at Sandy Chipmunk and sent a chill of +fear over him. The monster's wide mouth grinned at him cruelly. And its +long tail lashed back and forth as if its owner were very angry. Even as +Sandy looked at the creature it gave a horrid scream. + +Sandy Chipmunk did not wait for anything else. He turned and ran home. +And a few of his friends who happened to see him remarked that he seemed +to be in a greater hurry than ever. + +Sandy felt better when he found himself safe in his mother's house. And +he told Mrs. Chipmunk what he had seen. + +"It may be an owl," he said, "because it has big, round eyes. But its +tail was not like any owl's tail that I ever saw. It was like six +catamounts' tails, all tied in knots." + +"That's queer!" his mother remarked. "I never knew of a bird with a tail +like that." + +"Maybe it's a beast that has learned to fly," Sandy suggested. + +"Beasts can't fly," Mrs. Chipmunk said. + +But Sandy knew better than that. + +"There's the Flying-Squirrel family," he reminded her. + +"They can only fly from one tree to another," his mother told him. "I +think I'll peep out and see for myself what this strange creature looks +like." + +He begged her not to. But Mrs. Chipmunk said she would be careful. And +she went out and looked up at the sky. + +Sandy was surprised when she came back laughing. + +"What is it, Mother?" he asked. "Is it a bird or a beast?" + +"Neither!" Mrs. Chipmunk answered with a smile. + +"Then it must be a fish!" Sandy exclaimed. + +"No! It's not a fish, either," his mother said. "It's nothing but a kite +that Johnnie Green has made. He has painted eyes and a mouth on it. And I +must say that if I didn't know a kite when I saw one it might have +frightened me." + +"But what makes it lash its tail that way?" Sandy asked her. + +"The wind is blowing it," Mrs. Chipmunk explained. + +"What made it scream?" Sandy inquired. + +"It didn't," his mother replied. + +[Illustration: Mrs. Chipmunk Went to the Door with Sandy] + +Now, Sandy Chipmunk knew better than to contradict his mother. So all he +said was this: + +"Let's go outside and listen!" + +Still smiling, Mrs. Chipmunk went to the door again with Sandy. And +pretty soon they heard a long, far-off wail. + +"There!" he cried. "That's it! Don't you hear it, Mother?" + +"That--" Mrs. Chipmunk said--"that is nothing but the whistle of an +engine, way down at the other end of Pleasant Valley." + + + + +III + +THE BROKEN EGG + + +Nuts and grains were what Sandy Chipmunk ate more than anything else. But +sometimes when he could not find enough of those, or when he wanted a +change of food, he would eat almost any sort of berry, and apples and +pears as well. Tomatoes, too, he liked once in a while. And he was very +fond of sunflower seeds. He would not refuse a fat insect, either, if it +flew his way. But these were not the only dainties that Sandy thought +good. There was something else--something to be found in trees--for which +Sandy sometimes hunted. And before he came home, after finding what he +was looking for, he always wiped his mouth with great care. + +If you had ever seen him wiping his mouth like that, you might have +guessed that Sandy Chipmunk had been eating birds' eggs. And the reason +he was so careful to remove all signs of his feast was because he did not +want his mother to know what he had been doing. + +Now you have heard the worst there is to know about Sandy Chipmunk. + +To you it may seem odd that Mrs. Chipmunk did not think it wrong to rob +birds' nests. And now you know the worst about _her_. + +Sandy's mother liked eggs just as much as he did. But her son was such +a little fellow that she was afraid he might get hurt climbing trees +and looking for eggs. She told him that some day some bird might +surprise him when he was enjoying a meal of her eggs, and peck out one +or two of his eyes. + +"Keep away from the nests!" Mrs. Chipmunk said. + +But Sandy had had too many tastes of birds' eggs. He simply couldn't +resist eating a few eggs now and then. Of course, when he did that he +disobeyed his mother. And of course, if she had known it she would have +punished him. + +As the spring days sped past, the birds that lived in Farmer Green's +pasture grew very angry with Sandy Chipmunk. You see, it was not +long before they discovered who it was that was robbing their nests +now and then. + +"You'd better leave birds' eggs alone!" Mr. Crow warned him one day. "A +number of my friends have told me what they're going to do to you, if +they catch you near their nests." + +But Sandy told Mr. Crow to keep his advice to himself. + +"What about Farmer Green's corn?" Sandy asked the old gentleman. "I've +heard that Farmer Green is looking for you with a gun." + +Mr. Crow didn't even answer him. He just flew away. There were some +things he didn't like to talk about. + +That very afternoon Sandy Chipmunk spied a robin's nest in a tree not far +from where he lived. And in less time than it takes to tell it, he had +climbed the tree and run out on the limb where the nest rested. + +Sandy Chipmunk smiled as he peered into the robin's nest. The four +greenish-blue eggs that he saw there looked very good to him. And he +smacked his lips--though his mother had often told him not to. He was +just picking the eggs out of the nest when he heard a rustle in the +leaves over his head. And Sandy Chipmunk looked up quickly. + +It seemed to him, at first, that the air was full of monstrous birds. +Actually, there were only three of them--Mr. and Mrs. Robin and a +neighbor of theirs. But to Sandy they looked six times as big as they +really were. _That_ was because they had caught him robbing the nest. + +He was so startled that he dropped the eggs. They fell back into the +nest--all except one, which broke upon the ground beneath the tree. + +"Robber!" Mrs. Robin screamed. + +"Thief!" Mr. Robin roared. + +"Villain!" their neighbor cried. + +It is a wonder they didn't fly straight at Sandy and knock him off the +limb. + +At first he was too frightened to say a word. But when he saw that he +wasn't hurt, Sandy looked down at the broken egg and said: + +"What a pity!" He meant it, too. For he thought it was a shame to waste a +perfectly good egg like that, when he might have eaten it. + +"You don't mean you're sorry, do you?" Mrs. Robin asked him. + +"Certainly I am!" Sandy told her. "I was just counting your eggs. And +when you startled me, I dropped that one. I thought it must be a hawk, +you all made such a noise." + +"You're sure you weren't going to eat our eggs?" Mr. Robin inquired. + +"Eat them!" Sandy exclaimed. "Why, my mother has often told me not to eat +birds' eggs." + +When he heard that, Mr. Robin whispered something to his wife. And then +he said to Sandy Chipmunk: + +"You go home! And don't let me catch you around this tree again!" + +Sandy was glad to escape so easily as that. And though he was sorry to +have missed a good meal, there was one thing that made him almost +happy: He didn't have to bother to wipe his mouth before he let his +mother see him. + + + + +IV + +BUILDING A HOUSE + + +There came a day when Sandy Chipmunk decided that he was old enough and +big enough to make a house of his own. He was not the sort of person to +think and think about a thing and put off the doing of it from one day to +another. So the moment the idea of a house popped into his head Sandy +Chipmunk began hunting for a good place to dig. + +It was not long before he found a bit of ground that seemed to him the +very best spot for a home that any one could want. + +The place where he intended to make his front door was in the middle of a +smooth plot among some beech trees. Farmer Green's cows had clipped the +grass short all around. And Sandy knew that he could have a neat dooryard +without being obliged to go to the trouble of cutting the grass himself. +But what he liked most of all about the place was that as he stood there +he could look all around in every direction. That was just what he +wanted, because whenever he wished to leave his new house he would be +able to peep out and see whether anybody was waiting to catch him. + +So Sandy Chipmunk took off his little, short coat, folded it carefully, +and laid it down upon the grass. Then he pulled off his necktie and +unbuttoned his collar. Just because he was going to dig in the ground +there was no reason why he should get his clothes dirty. + +After that Sandy Chipmunk set to work. And you should have seen how he +made the earth fly. When night came and he had to stop working there was +a big heap of dirt beneath the beech trees, to show how busy Sandy had +been. There was a big hole in the pasture, too. But it was nothing at +all, compared with the hole Sandy had dug by the time he had finished +his house. + +Every morning Sandy Chipmunk came back to the grove of beech trees to +work upon his new house. And it was not many days before his burrow was +so deep that when winter came the ground about his chamber would not +freeze. It was what Farmer Green would have called "below frost-line." + +You must not think it was an easy matter for Sandy Chipmunk to dig a +home. You must remember that somehow he had to bring the dirt out of his +tunnel to the top of the ground. And he did that by _pushing it ahead of +him with his nose_. + +You may laugh when you hear that. But for Sandy Chipmunk it was no +laughing matter. If _he_ had laughed, just as likely as not he would have +found his mouth full of dirt. And you can understand that that wouldn't +have been very pleasant. + +As it was, his face was very dirty. But he never went back to his +mother's house until he had washed it carefully, just as a cat washes her +face. + +Sometimes Sandy found stones in his way, down there beneath the pasture. +And those he had to push up, too. Sometimes a stone was too big to crowd +through the opening into the world outside. And then Sandy had to make +the opening bigger. After he had done that, and pushed the stone out upon +his dirt-pile, he would make his doorway smaller again by packing earth +firmly into it. + +You must not suppose that when Sandy brought the loose dirt and stones up +through his doorway he left them there. Not at all! He pushed all the +litter some distance away. And whenever he turned, to scamper down into +his burrow again, he would kick behind him, as hard as he could, to +scatter the dirt still further from his new house. + +After Sandy had made himself a chamber where he could sleep, and where he +could store enough food to last him throughout the winter, any one would +naturally imagine that his house was finished. But Sandy Chipmunk was not +yet satisfied with his new home. There was still something else that he +wanted to do to it. + + + + +V + +MRS. CHIPMUNK IS GLAD + + +After Sandy Chipmunk had dug his chamber underneath Farmer Green's +pasture, he liked the _inside_ of his house quite well. But the looks of +the _outside_ did not please him at all. He wanted a neat dooryard. And +how could he have that, with that yawning hole through which he had +pushed earth and stones, which still littered the grass a little +distance away? + +Luckily, Sandy knew exactly what to do. So he set to work to close the +big work-hole. It was no easy task--as you can believe. But at last he +managed to pack the hole full of dirt. + +Then he had no door at all. And there he was in the dark, inside the +hall that led to his chamber and storeroom. But that did not worry Sandy. +You see, he knew just what he was about. And before long he had dug a new +doorway--a small, neat, round hole, which you would probably have walked +right past, without noticing it, it was so hard to see in the grass that +grew thickly about it. + +You might think that at last Sandy's house was finished. But he was not +satisfied with it until he had made still another doorway, in the same +fashion. He knew that it was safer to have an extra door through which he +could slip out when some enemy was entering by the other one. Then Sandy +Chipmunk's house was finished. And he was greatly pleased with it. + +But his work was not yet done. He had to furnish his chamber. So he began +to hunt about for dry leaves, to make him a bed. These he stuffed into +his cheek-pouches and carried into his house. But he didn't march proudly +up to one of his two doors. Oh, no! He reached it by careful leaps and +bounds. And when he left home again he was particular to go in the same +manner in which he had come. + +It made no difference which of his doors Sandy used. He always came and +went like that, because he didn't want to wear a path to either of his +two doors or tramp down the grass around them. If he had been so careless +as to let people notice where he lived he would have been almost sure to +have enemies prowling about his house. And if a weasel had happened to +see one of Sandy's neat doorways he would have pushed right in, in the +hope of finding Sandy inside his house. + +In that case the weasel would probably have pushed out again, with Sandy +inside _him_. So you can understand that Sandy Chipmunk had the best of +reasons for being careful. + +After he had made a soft, warm bed for himself, Sandy set to work to +gather nuts and grain, to store in his house and eat during the winter. +He was particular to choose only well cured (or dried) food, for he knew +that that was the only sort that would keep through the long winter, down +in his underground storeroom. + +He gathered other food, too, besides nuts and grain. Near Farmer Green's +house he found some plump sunflower seeds, which he added to his store. +Then there were wild-cherry pits, too, which the birds had dropped upon +the ground. All these, and many other kinds of food, found their way into +Sandy Chipmunk's home. + +Much as he liked such things to eat--and especially sunflower seeds--he +never ate a single nut or grain or seed while he gathered them for his +winter's food. And when you stop to remember that he had to carry +everything home in his _mouth_, you can see that Sandy Chipmunk had what +is called self-control. + +His mother had always told him that he couldn't get through a winter +without that. And so, when Sandy brought her to see his new home, after +it was all finished, and his bed was neatly made, and his storeroom full +of food, Mrs. Chipmunk was delighted. + +"I'm glad to see--" she said--"I'm glad to see that all my talking has +done some good." + + + + +VI + +SAMPLES OF WHEAT + + +There was so much said about Sandy Chipmunk's store of nuts and grain +that a few of the forest-people began to wish they had some of Sandy's +winter food for themselves. Uncle Sammy Coon, an old scamp who lived over +near the swamp, was one of those who began to plan to get Sandy's hoard +away from him. + +It was the grain that Uncle Sammy wanted. If he had spent in honest work +one-half the time he used in planning some trickery he would have been +much better off. But he hated work more than anything else in the world. + +Uncle Sammy Coon scarcely slept at all for several days, he was so busy +thinking about Sandy's grain. And since he always passed his nights in +wandering through the woods, he became almost ill. + +The trouble was, Uncle Sammy was far too big to crawl inside Sandy's +house. And he knew that the only way he could get at the grain was to +persuade somebody to bring it outside for him. + +At last he thought of a fine scheme. And as soon as it came into his head +he hobbled over to Sandy Chipmunk's home. I say _hobbled_, because Uncle +Sammy had a lame knee. He always claimed that he was injured in battle. +But almost every one knew that he hurt his knee one time when Farmer +Green caught him stealing a hen. + +When he reached the pasture Uncle Sammy found Sandy Chipmunk just +starting away to hunt for nuts. + +[Illustration: He Dropped the Grain in Front of Uncle Sammy] + +"Good morning!" the old fellow said. He spoke very pleasantly, though he +was so sleepy that he felt disagreeable enough. "I've come over to buy +something from your store." + +"My store!" Sandy Chipmunk exclaimed. + +"Yes!" said Uncle Sammy Coon. "I've heard you have a store here with a +heap of nuts and grain to sell." + +Now, it had never occurred to Sandy Chipmunk to _sell_ any of the food he +had gathered for the winter. But when Uncle Sammy put the idea in his +head Sandy rather liked it. + +"I have a fine stock, to be sure," he said. "The nuts are specially good. +How many would you like to buy?" + +But Uncle Sammy Coon told him he didn't want any nuts. + +"I never eat them," he said. "It's grain that I want. And I'll buy as +much as you care to sell.... Bring a sample of it up here," he urged. +"I'd like to see if it's as good as people say." + +So Sandy Chipmunk darted into his house. And soon he appeared again with +his cheek-pouches crammed full of wheat kernels. + +"There!" he cried, when he had dropped the grain in front of Uncle Sammy. +"Just try a little of it! You'll agree with me that it's very fine." + +Uncle Sammy not only tried a little. He gobbled up every single kernel. + +"It seems to me to have a queer taste," he said. "Bring up some more!" + +And Sandy scurried down into his house again, to bob up in a few moments +with another sample of his grain. + +Once more Uncle Sammy ate it all. + +"It's a bit damp," he remarked, as he smacked his lips. "I hope it's not +moldy.... You'd better let me see another sample." + +Uncle Sammy declared the next heap of kernels to be altogether too dry. +And he kept ordering Sandy to fetch more for him to "taste," as he called +it. Some of the wheat he considered too ripe, and some too green. Some of +the kernels--so he said--were too little, and others too big. And finally +he even told Sandy Chipmunk that he was afraid Sandy was trying to sell +him _last year's_ wheat. + +Now, Sandy knew that his wheat was fresh--all of it. So he went down and +brought up still another load. + +Uncle Sammy ate that more slowly, for by this time he had had a good +meal. + +"How do you like it?" Sandy asked him. + +"It's fair," Uncle Sammy replied. "But I believe it's _next year's_ +wheat. And of course I wouldn't think of buying that kind.... I guess I +can't trade with you, after all." And he started to hobble away. + +When Sandy heard that, and saw the old fellow leaving, he began to scold. + +"Aren't you going to pay me for what you've eaten?" he asked. + +"What! Pay you for the samples?" Uncle Sammy asked. "I guess, young man, +you don't know much about keeping a store. Nobody ever pays for samples." +And he went away muttering to himself. + +Sandy Chipmunk felt very sad. Uncle Sammy had eaten half his winter's +supply of wheat. + +Sandy was angry, too. And for several days he was busier than ever, +trying to think of some way in which he could make Uncle Sammy Coon pay +him. + + + + +VII + +UNCLE SAMMY'S STORE + + +Not long after Uncle Sammy Coon ate half of Sandy Chipmunk's wheat +without paying for it he seemed to grow lamer than ever. And he walked +less than ever, too. A good many of the forest-folk said that he really +wasn't any lamer--but he was lazier. + +However that may have been, he began to stay at home a good deal of the +time. And finally Sandy Chipmunk heard that Uncle Sammy had opened a +store, in which he kept all sorts of good things to eat. + +When Sandy learned that he lost no time in going over to Uncle Sammy's +house near the swamp. + +Sure enough! There he found Uncle Sammy sitting behind a long table. And +behind him were shelves loaded with apples, pears, corn, nuts and many +other kinds of food. + +"I'd like to buy some nuts," Sandy Chipmunk told the old gentleman. + +"Nuts?" said Uncle Sammy. "I have some fine nuts." + +"Let me see a sample," Sandy said. + +But Uncle Sammy never stirred. + +"There they are, right on the shelf!" he said. "Look at them all +you want to." + +"I'll eat one and see how I like it," said Sandy Chipmunk. + +But Uncle Sammy shook his head. + +"No!" he replied. "That's the old-fashioned way of keeping a store. I +don't give away any samples." + +When Sandy heard that he was angrier than ever. And he wished he had +never given Uncle Sammy any samples of his wheat. But he knew there was +no use of _appearing angry_. So he smiled and asked: + +"What is the price of your beechnuts?" + +"For one handful, you will have to pay me an ear of corn," Uncle +Sammy said. + +"I'll take a handful," said Sandy. + +Still the old fellow never stirred. + +"Where's your ear of corn?" he inquired. + +"Oh! I'll give you that the next time I pass this way," said Sandy. And +he made up his mind that he would take good care to keep away from Uncle +Sammy's house. + +But Uncle Sammy Coon was too sharp. + +"That won't do at all," he said. "I must have the corn before I give you +the nuts." + +So Sandy Chipmunk stepped to the door. + +"I'll come back soon," he said. And he ran all the way to Farmer Green's +cornfield, to get an ear of green corn. And then he ran all the way back +to Uncle Sammy's house. + +"There!" Sandy said. "There's your ear of corn!" He laid it upon the +table. "Now give me a handful of beechnuts." + +"Step right in and help yourself," Uncle Sammy answered. + +"No!" said Sandy. "You give me the nuts." He knew that Uncle Sammy's +hands were much bigger than his own and would hold more nuts. + +"I should think you might get them," the old scamp grumbled. "I've a lame +knee, you know." + +"But I said a 'handful'--not a 'kneeful,'" Sandy answered. "Of course, if +you don't want this juicy ear of corn, there are others that would like +it." He started to pick the ear of corn off the table when Uncle Sammy +rose quickly. + +"All right!" he cried. "But it's the old-fashioned way; and I don't like +it." Then he gave Sandy a small handful of beechnuts. + +Sandy Chipmunk ate them right on the spot. And he began to feel very +happy. He had noticed that Uncle Sammy tossed the ear of corn into a +basket which stood beneath the table. And the basket was full of corn. +Sandy could reach it just as easily from the front of the table as Uncle +Sammy could from behind it. + +And Sandy Chipmunk had thought all at once of a way to get a good many +nuts away from Uncle Sammy, to pay for all the wheat Uncle Sammy had +eaten. + + + + +VIII + +THE BASKET OF CORN + + +"What are those nuts on the top shelf?" Sandy Chipmunk asked Uncle +Sammy Coon. + +Now, Uncle Sammy had been keeping store so short a time that he didn't +exactly know what was on every one of his shelves. So he wheeled around +and looked up. And as soon as his back was turned, Sandy Chipmunk reached +down under the table and pulled an ear of corn out of the big basket. + +"They're butternuts," Uncle Sammy said. "And they're the same price as +the beechnuts." + +"Give me one handful," Sandy said. + +"_Give_ you a handful--" Uncle Sammy snapped. + +But Sandy Chipmunk smiled at him. + +"I mean, _sell_ me a handful," he explained. "And here's your ear of +corn." It really was Uncle Sammy's ear of corn, you know--just as +Sandy said. + +But Uncle Sammy didn't know that. He didn't know it had come out of his +own basket. So he threw it into the basket and set a handful of +butternuts before Sandy Chipmunk. + +Sandy was longer eating those, for the shells were harder and thicker +than the beechnut shells. But in a little while he was ready for more. + +"How about your chestnuts?" he asked. + +And Uncle Sammy turned his back again. + +"I have a few," he said. + +"I'll buy a handful," Sandy told him, as he pulled another ear of corn +out of the basket. + +And after that Sandy bought hickory nuts and hazelnuts and walnuts. + +"How about peanuts?" he asked then. "I've never eaten any; but I've heard +they are very good." + +Uncle Sammy stood up and searched his shelves very carefully. And while +he was searching, Sandy Chipmunk took six ears of green corn out of the +big basket under the table. + +"I don't seem to have any peanuts," Uncle Sammy Coon said at last. + +"Well--have you any nutmegs?" Sandy inquired. + +And while Uncle Sammy was looking for nutmegs, Sandy Chipmunk slyly took +six more ears from the basket. He had more corn now than he could carry. +So he quickly tossed it out through the doorway. + +[Illustration: Uncle Sammy Searched His Shelves Carefully] + +Uncle Sammy Coon had to admit at last that he had no nutmegs. But Sandy +kept him busy hunting for almonds and Brazil nuts and pecans, though he +knew well enough that nothing of the sort grew in those woods. + +By the time Uncle Sammy stopped looking there was no more corn left in +his basket. But there was a great pile of corn on the ground just outside +his door, where Sandy Chipmunk had thrown it. + +Then Sandy said he must be going. And long before Uncle Sammy stirred out +of his house Sandy had carried the corn away and hid it in a good, safe +place. He thought that if he left it to dry it would make just as good +food for winter as the wheat Uncle Sammy had eaten. And that was just +what happened. + +That night, long after Sandy Chipmunk had left the store, Uncle Sammy +Coon had a great surprise. When he went to the basket, to get some green +corn for his supper, there was not a single ear there. + +"That's queer!" Uncle Sammy Coon exclaimed. "It was full this afternoon. +And now there's not an ear left. I don't remember eating it." He thought +deeply for a long time. And after a while he said to himself: "I wonder +if it could have been that Chipmunk boy?" But he decided that Sandy was +too small to have carried away all those big ears under his very nose. "I +must have eaten it," he told himself. "I'm getting terribly forgetful." + +And since he thought he had already had his supper, Uncle Sammy Coon went +to bed without any supper at all. + + + + +IX + +WORKING FOR MR. CROW + + +Old Mr. Crow had decided that he would not fly south to spend the +winter. He said he was getting almost too old for such a long journey. +And he remembered, too, that he had heard the weather was going to be +mild that winter. + +"There's just one thing that worries me," he told Aunt Polly Woodchuck +one day, when he was talking the matter over with her. "I don't know what +I shall have to eat." + +"Why, you can sleep until spring, just as I do," Aunt Polly said. "Then +you won't want anything to eat." + +But Mr. Crow said he was a light sleeper and that he could no more sleep +the whole winter long than Aunt Polly could fly. + +"Then why don't you store up some corn, the way the squirrels do?" she +asked him. There was one thing about Aunt Polly--she always had a remedy +for everything. + +"That's a good idea!" Mr. Crow told her. "Maybe I can get somebody to +help me, too." + +And that very day he went to Sandy Chipmunk and asked him if he didn't +want to gather some food for him. + +"How much will you pay me?" Sandy asked him. + +"I'll give you half what you gather for me," said Mr. Crow. "And that's +certainly fair, I'm sure. It's often done. And it's called 'working at +the halves.'" + +It seemed fair to Sandy Chipmunk, too. + +"That's a bargain," he said. "I'll begin right away. Where do you want me +to hide the food for you, Mr. Crow?" + +Old Mr. Crow told Sandy to put it in his house in the top of the tall elm +tree. + +"I don't like to climb so high," Sandy objected. "You know I'm not so +good a climber as Frisky Squirrel. He wouldn't mind climbing up to your +house. But it might make me dizzy." + +"Well," said Mr. Crow, "why don't you bring the food to the foot of my +tree and get Frisky Squirrel to carry it to the top?" + +"I'll do it," said Sandy Chipmunk--"if Frisky is willing." So he went off +to find Frisky Squirrel, who proved to be much interested in the plan. + +"How much will you pay me?" he asked Sandy Chipmunk. + +"I suppose you ought to have half the food," Sandy said. "That's what +Mr. Crow is paying me." + +Frisky Squirrel said that that seemed fair. So they set to work at once. +And every time Sandy brought a load of food to the foot of the tall elm, +where Mr. Crow lived, he found Frisky Squirrel waiting for him. + +"Let's see--" Frisky said, when Sandy brought the first load--"since I'm +to get half, I'll take everything you bring in your left cheek-pouch. And +you can take what you bring in the right one." + +Sandy Chipmunk said that that seemed fair. So each time he came to the +elm he left with Frisky only what he carried in his left cheek-pouch. And +before gathering more food he scampered home to store away his own share. + +So the day passed. And when evening came, and the sun was dropping out +of sight in the west, Sandy and Frisky decided they had worked long +enough for Mr. Crow. + +"Don't you suppose he has enough food by this time?" Sandy asked. He +looked up at Mr. Crow's house. "We mustn't fill his house too full," he +said. "He has to have room for himself, you know." + +"I don't think he'll have any trouble getting inside it," Frisky +Squirrel answered. + +"Well--I'm glad you helped me," Sandy told him. "If it didn't make me +dizzy to climb so high I'd like to take a look at Mr. Crow's food. I hope +he'll be pleased." + +"I hope he will," Frisky Squirrel agreed. + +Sandy Chipmunk noticed that Frisky Squirrel was smiling. But he thought +that it was only because he was thinking about Mr. Crow, and how happy +he would be. + +"Let's wait here till he comes home," Sandy suggested. + +But Frisky Squirrel said that he was going to bed early that night, +because he expected to have a race with the sun the next morning. + +"I'm going to try to beat him," he explained. "I'm going to see if I +can't get up before he does." + +So Frisky said good-night and left Sandy to wait for Mr. Crow alone. + + + + +X + +MR. CROW SCOLDS SANDY + + +When he finally reached home, after Sandy Chipmunk had been working for +him all day, Mr. Crow was feeling very pleasant. You know, he thought +that his winter's food must be in his house. And that alone is enough to +make any one happy. But what Mr. Crow liked most about his bargain was +the fact that he wouldn't have to pay Sandy for his work. He had said to +Sandy: "I'll agree to give you half what you gather for me." And Sandy +Chipmunk had never stopped to think that that was not any pay at all. For +he might have gathered the food for himself, and had all, instead of +only half of it. As it was, Sandy Chipmunk was paying himself for working +for Mr. Crow. And Mr. Crow seemed to be the only one that was wise enough +to know it. + +Mr. Crow dropped down upon the ground beside Sandy Chipmunk. + +"Well," he said, "have you finished?" + +"Yes!" Sandy answered. "And I hope you'll like what I've done. I'll wait +here until you fly up to your house and look at the food." + +"All right!" Mr. Crow told him. He flapped his big, black wings. And soon +he had risen to the top of the tall elm. + +Sandy watched him as he looked inside his house. At first Mr. Crow only +stared--and said nothing. And then--to Sandy's astonishment--he began to +scold. + +"What's the trouble?" Sandy Chipmunk called. + +"Trouble?" Mr. Crow cried, as he flew down again. "There's trouble +enough. Why, you haven't kept your bargain!" + +Sandy Chipmunk declared that he had done exactly as he had agreed. + +"I brought load after load of food to the foot of this tree," +heexplained. "Half of it I took for myself--just as you suggested. Of +course, I had to pay Frisky Squirrel for helping me. I paid him half the +food for carrying it up to your house." + +"That's it!" Mr. Crow cried. "That's the trouble! You took half and +Frisky Squirrel took half. So of course there was no food left for me. +There are two halves in a whole, you know." + +"You must be mistaken," Sandy told him politely. "There's only _one_ half +in my hole. I put my half there myself, and I ought to know." + +Mr. Crow looked as if he thought Sandy Chipmunk must be playing a trick +on him. But pretty soon he saw that it was not so. + +"You don't seem to understand," Mr. Crow said. "I don't believe you've +ever studied fractions." + +Sandy Chipmunk admitted that he never had. + +"Ah!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "This is what comes of hiring stupid people +to work for one. Here I've wasted all my corn. And I get nothing for it +but trouble." + +"Corn!" Sandy Chipmunk exclaimed. "I don't know anything about any corn!" + +"Well, you certainly are stupid!" Mr. Crow told him crossly. "Didn't you +spend the whole day gathering corn for me?" + +"No, indeed!" Sandy replied. "I gathered beechnuts, Mr. Crow." + +"Beechnuts!" Mr. Crow repeated. "I never told you I wanted _nuts_. I'd +starve, trying to live on nuts; for they don't agree with me at all. And +I make it a rule never to eat them. _Corn_ is what I want." + +"You didn't say so," Sandy Chipmunk said. "You asked me to gather _food_ +for you. And every one knows there's no better food than beechnuts to +last through the winter." + +"That--" said Mr. Crow--"that is where we do not agree. I supposed you +knew I wanted corn. But there's no great harm done, anyhow," he added. +"Tomorrow you can gather _corn_ for me--now that you know what I want. No +doubt you can get Frisky Squirrel to help you again. But you must pay him +with _your_ share of the corn--not with mine." + +"But then there wouldn't be any left for me," Sandy objected. + +"But just think of all the beechnuts you have," Mr. Crow reminded him. + +Sandy Chipmunk shook his head. "I'm afraid I'm too stupid to work for +you any more," he told Mr. Crow. + +"Oh! I didn't mean what I said," Mr. Crow hastened to explain. + +"Then--" Sandy said--"then how do I know that you mean what you say when +you tell me you want corn to eat?" + +And Mr. Crow could find no answer to that. He was disappointed, too. For +he was afraid he would have to go south to spend the winter, after all. + + + + +XI + +THE MAIL-BOX + + +Climbing an oak at the cross-roads one day, not far from Farmer Green's +house, Sandy Chipmunk discovered a queer box nailed to the trunk of the +tree. Much as he wanted to, he couldn't look inside the box, because its +lid was closed. And since Sandy was afraid the box might be some sort of +trap, he didn't dare go near it and poke at the lid. + +Later that day Sandy told Frisky Squirrel about the strange box. And +Frisky told Fatty Coon. And Fatty Coon told somebody else. + +So the news traveled, until at last it reached the sharp ears of old Mr. +Crow. + +By the time Mr. Crow heard the story it had grown amazingly. And it went +something like this: Farmer Green had bought a new trap in the village. +And he had nailed it on a tree to catch all sorts of animals and birds. +And after he had caught all the forest-folk in Pleasant Valley he +intended to take the trap to Swift River and set it for fish and eels +and turtles. + +When Mr. Crow heard the news he _haw-hawed_ loudly. + +"What are you laughing about?" Jasper Jay asked him. (It was Jasper who +repeated the story to Mr. Crow.) "You wouldn't think it was such a joke +if you were caught in the trap." + +"Trap!" Mr. Crow sneered. "That's no trap. That's what's called a +_mail-box_. Every day a man with letters and newspapers drives over here +from the village. And he stops at the cross-roads and leaves something in +the box for Farmer Green." + +As soon as he heard that, Jasper Jay flew away to tell everybody about +the mail-box. And at last Sandy Chipmunk heard the story. But by the time +it reached his ears--after it had been told by one person to another +almost forty times--the story was somewhat different from what it had +been when Mr. Crow first told it to Jasper Jay. This is what Sandy heard: +The thing on the tree was a mailbox. Every day a man drove from the +village in a wagon drawn by twelve horses. He had a load of letters as +big as six haystacks. And he left a handful of letters in that box, +because he wanted to get rid of them so he could go back to the village +for more. And any one could take a letter--if it happened to be for him. + +It was Frisky Squirrel who told the story to Sandy. Of course, after so +much telling it had changed a good deal. But Sandy Chipmunk didn't know +that. And he hurried to the cross-roads at once, to watch for the man +driving the twelve horses. + +When he reached the oak, where the box was, Sandy climbed the tree and +perched himself on a limb and waited. He had not sat there long before he +saw a man drive up the road. Sandy Chipmunk was surprised when the man +stopped beneath the tree and dropped some letters and newspapers into the +box. He was surprised because the man drove only one horse, instead of +twelve. And the man had only a single bag of mail in his wagon, instead +of a great heap--as big as six haystacks. + +Sandy Chipmunk was somewhat disappointed. But he was glad of one thing: +The man left the lid of the box open. And as soon as he had driven on +again, Sandy crept down the tree and crawled right inside the mail-box. + +Though he was not expecting a letter from anybody, he thought it would be +just as well to look and see if the man had left one for him. + +Now, Sandy had never learned to read. And you might think it would do him +no good at all to look at the envelopes. But he soon came upon one which +he was sure was his. And the reason for that was that he had found an +envelope with the picture of a chipmunk in one corner of it! + +That was enough for Sandy. + +"I'm glad I came!" he said to himself. "Here's a letter for me! And how +surprised everybody will be!" + +So he took the letter in his mouth and started down the tree. + +The very first person he surprised was Farmer Green himself. He had +walked to the cross-roads from his house. And he had almost reached the +oak when he saw Sandy Chipmunk spring from the tree to the stone wall, +with a letter in his mouth, and scamper away. + +Farmer Green ran after Sandy. And he threw stones at him. But Sandy +Chipmunk ran so fast that Farmer Green soon lost sight of him. + +"I'd like to know what was in that letter," Farmer Green said, when he +told his family what had happened. "I'll have to warn the letter-carrier +to be sure to close the mail-box after this, for I can't have any more of +my letters stolen." + +Johnnie Green couldn't help laughing, when he heard his father tell about +the chipmunk running away with a letter in his mouth. + +[Illustration: "Here's a Letter for Me!" Said Sandy Chipmunk] + +But Farmer Green didn't seem to see anything to laugh at. + +"I only hope," he said, "the letter was nothing of importance." + + + + +XII + +SANDY GETS A LETTER + + +After Sandy Chipmunk, with the letter in his mouth, escaped from Farmer +Green, he ran home and showed his letter to everybody he met. He felt +very proud. + +"See!" he said. "There was a letter for me in the mail-box. It's lucky I +found it when I did, for I believe Farmer Green would have taken it if I +hadn't reached the box before him." + +Old Mr. Crow laughed mockingly when Sandy called to him that he had a +letter. + +"I see you _have_ one," Mr. Crow said. "But the question is, to whom does +it really belong? If the truth were known, I guess that letter rightfully +belongs to a farmer named Green." + +That remark made Sandy angry. + +"The letter belongs to me!" he told Mr. Crow. "Here's my picture on it. +You can see for yourself." + +Now, Mr. Crow could not read either--for all he was so old. And when he +saw the picture of a chipmunk on the envelope, exactly like Sandy, he was +very much surprised. + +"Why don't you open your letter?" he asked. + +"I hadn't thought of that," Sandy replied. So he tore open the envelope +and pulled out a paper. + +"It's certainly for me," he said, "for here's my picture again. But I'd +like to know why these other people have their pictures in _my_ letter. +They've no business in _my_ letter!" + +Mr. Crow looked over Sandy's shoulder--which was not at all a polite +thing to do. + +"That's queer!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "There's one of the Red-Squirrel boys +and Mrs. Mouse's son. And this young chap here looks a lot like Rinaldo +Rat. ... I'd be pretty angry if anybody sent me a letter like that," Mr. +Crow then said. + +Now, the real trouble with Mr. Crow was that he was jealous because Sandy +Chipmunk had a letter, while _he_ had none. + +"I'd throw that letter away, if it was mine," remarked Mr. Crow. And he +said so much that at last Sandy Chipmunk tossed the letter away and went +off to hunt for birds' eggs. + +As soon as Sandy was out of sight, Mr. Crow picked up the letter and flew +home with it. + +He felt better--because at last he had a letter, while Sandy Chipmunk no +longer had one. + +That very afternoon Farmer Green drove to the village. And on his way he +stopped at the houses of several of his neighbors, to talk about the +weather and the crops. And each one of them showed him a letter that had +come that day, telling all about a new kind of poison, to rid a farmer of +chipmunks and red squirrels and rats and mice. + +"Sprinkle our powder around your corn-crib," the letter said, "and these +little rodents will trouble you no longer." + +"I declare!" cried Farmer Green at last. "I seem to be the only person in +the neighborhood that didn't get one of those letters." Then he happened +to remember the letter Sandy Chipmunk had carried away in his mouth. "It +must have been that letter that the chipmunk stole out of my mail-box!" +Farmer Green said. And that night, when he reached home and told his +family about the letter, his son Johnnie laughed harder than ever. + +"That must be a wise chipmunk!" Johnnie Green exclaimed. "I wish I could +catch him and put him in my squirrel cage." + +"I wish he'd leave my mail alone," said Farmer Green. "The next thing we +know, he'll be taking my newspaper to read. And maybe he'll come right +into the house and borrow my spectacles." + +Johnnie Green seemed to think his father was joking. And perhaps he was. + +What do you think about it? + + + + +XIII + +A RIDE TO THE MILLER'S + + +Do you know about the time Johnnie Green and his grandmother and Sandy +Chipmunk started for the miller's with a sack of wheat to be ground? If +you never heard the story, this is the way it happened--and if you _have_ +heard it, it happened this way, just the same: + +Farmer Green's wife had noticed that the flour in her flour-barrel was +getting low. So one morning Farmer Green pulled a wagon from under a shed +and set a big bag of wheat in it, behind the seat. Then he went into the +house to get a piece of string with which to tie the bag. Farmer Green +hadn't seen a pair of bright eyes that were watching him from the fence +near-by. And he didn't know that as soon as he started to cross the +barnyard, Sandy Chipmunk stole up to the wagon, climbed into it, and +crept inside the open bag of wheat. + +Now, Sandy had not had his breakfast. So he began at once to eat heartily +of the wheat kernels, believing that after he had had a good meal it +would be time enough to think of carrying some of the wheat away to his +house. He only hoped that no one would take the bag away until he had +removed _all_ the wheat. There was enough of it--he was sure--to last him +for any number of winters. + +Now, you must not think that Sandy was greedy, because he wanted all that +wheat. He intended all the time to leave the _bag_ for Farmer Green. + +The wheat tasted so good that Sandy Chipmunk could think of nothing +else. So he never heard Johnnie Green's father when he came back from +the house. And before Sandy knew what was happening, Farmer Green had +reached into the wagon, drawn the mouth of the bag together, and tied it +hard and fast. + +There was Sandy Chipmunk, inside the bag. And he was so frightened that +he couldn't eat another mouthful. He just shivered and shook, while +Farmer Green went into the barn, led out an old, slow horse called +Ebenezer, and harnessed him to the wagon. + +Then Johnnie Green and his grandmother came out and seated themselves in +the wagon. Farmer Green gave Johnnie the reins; and Ebenezer started +jogging down the road toward the miller's, with Johnnie's old straw hat +and his grandmother's sunbonnet bobbing from side to side, and up and +down, and backwards and forwards, as the wagon jolted over ruts and +stones and thank-you-ma'ams--which were small ridges built across the +road, to turn the water into the ditch when it rained. + +Cowering inside the bag, Sandy Chipmunk thought the earth was rocking, +for he had never ridden in a wagon before. + +Although the sack was a stout one, Sandy could easily have gnawed his way +through it if he had not been too frightened to try. And there he stayed, +while all the time old Ebenezer kept plodding along toward the +grist-mill. + +Johnnie Green and his grandmother, talking so near him, only alarmed +Sandy all the more. And he thought he could not be more scared than he +was. But all at once the wagon lurched forward and Grandmother Green +screamed. And Johnnie began to cry "Whoa! whoa!" in a loud voice. + +Then Sandy Chipmunk began to shake harder than ever. He had no idea what +was happening. + + + + +XIV + +A LUCKY ACCIDENT + + +It was really no wonder that Johnnie Green's grandmother screamed, when +she and Johnnie and Sandy Chipmunk were on their way to the miller's to +get the wheat ground into flour. + +This was what made the good old lady scream: The ancient horse, Ebenezer, +was picking his way slowly down a steep hill, placing one foot carefully +in front of another, and taking pains not to step on the stones in the +road, so he wouldn't fall. + +What happened was not Ebenezer's fault at all. You see, he was wearing an +old harness. And just as he was on the steepest part of the hill a strap +broke and the wagon rolled right upon his heels. + +Now, many horses would have kicked and run, if such a thing had happened +to them. But even when Johnnie's grandmother screamed, old Ebenezer was +not at all frightened. And even when Johnnie cried "Whoa! whoa!" Ebenezer +did not stop. He thought he knew a good deal more about what he ought to +do than Johnnie Green did, for he had been pulling a wagon for almost +twenty years before Johnnie Green was born. + +Johnnie tugged hard upon the reins. But still old Ebenezer went on +picking his way even more slowly. And he never stopped until he reached +the bottom of the hill. Then he stood stock still; and he looked around +at Johnnie Green, as if to say, "There, young man! I've brought you and +your grandma safe down that hill. And _now_ I'll let you get out of the +wagon, if you want to." + +Well, Johnnie Green jumped down from his seat and looked at the harness. + +"Dear me!" his grandmother said. "If we only had a piece of string you +could mend the harness so we could get to the miller's, at least." + +Johnnie felt in all his pockets. And probably that was the first time he +had ever found himself without plenty of string. There were enough other +things in his pockets--a jackknife and nails, an apple and a lump of +maple sugar, an old broken watch and a willow whistle. But not a single +piece of string could Johnnie Green find. + +Then he happened to think of the string his father had used to tie up the +sack of wheat. Johnnie stood the sack on end, tipped it against the back +of the seat, so the wheat wouldn't fall out, and unwound the string from +the mouth of the bag. + +He had hardly begun to tie the harness together when Grandmother Green +screamed again. + +The horse Ebenezer looked around once more, as if to say, "I wonder +what's come over the old lady." + +And Johnnie Green turned his head, too. + +"My goodness!" his grandmother said. "Did you see that? Something ran +right up my back and jumped off my shoulder. There it goes now!" She +pointed at a small object which was scurrying through the roadside fence. +"Why, it was a chipmunk, I do believe!" she cried. "Now, where do you +suppose he came from?" + +Johnnie Green didn't know. And to tell the truth, he didn't much care. +You see, he felt very proud, mending the harness with nobody to help +him. And he was not interested in chipmunks just then. + +So Sandy escaped. To be sure, he was so far from home that he didn't know +where he was. But he was so glad to get out of the sack of wheat that he +didn't worry about being lost. He thought he could find some one who +would know where Farmer Green's pasture was. + + + + +XV + +THE ROWDY OF THE WOODS + + +One of the most quarrelsome of all Sandy Chipmunk's neighbors was Rowdy +Red-Squirrel. He was happiest when he was fighting. But perhaps that was +because he had never lost a fight. If Rowdy had had a sound beating, +maybe fighting would not have seemed so pleasant to him. + +Ever since Rowdy whipped Frisky Squirrel, who (being a gray squirrel) was +bigger than he was, Rowdy bullied every squirrel in the neighborhood--no +matter what color he might be. As for chipmunks, Rowdy Red-Squirrel +boasted that he could whip six chipmunks at a time. + +"That is, I could if they would stand still," he said. "Of course, if +they ran off in six different directions it might be a hard thing to do." + +Rowdy was talking to Jasper Jay, who sat in a tree not far away. His +boasting amused Jasper. First Jasper smiled. Then he laughed aloud. And +after that he gave a hoarse shriek, which rang through the woods most +unpleasantly. At least, that was what Rowdy Red-Squirrel thought. + +"What's the joke?" he asked. + +"The joke?" Jasper answered. "Why--ha! ha!--_you_ are the joke! I don't +believe you can whip _one_ chipmunk. And when you talk of whipping _six_, +I can't help laughing." + +"You wouldn't laugh if I could catch you," Rowdy Red-Squirrel growled. +And if he hadn't known that Jasper Jay would fly away, he would have +jumped into Jasper's tree and chased him. + +"You mustn't expect me to believe you can whip _six_ until I've seen you +whip _one_," Jasper went on. "There's Sandy Chipmunk in that beech tree. +Why don't you steal over there and show me whether you can whip him?" + +"I'll do it!" Rowdy cried. "Not that I find much pleasure in fighting a +single chipmunk--for I can whip _one_ with my hands tied behind me." + +"Can you?" Jasper Jay asked. "Then let me see you tie your hands." + +"I can't!" Rowdy Red-Squirrel replied. "Who ever heard of anybody who +could tie his own hands behind him?... _You_ will have to do that for +me," he said. + +Jasper Jay gave another loud shriek and rocked back and forth on the limb +where he sat. + +"Another joke!" he gasped--for he was too clever to be caught like that. +He had no idea of going near enough to Rowdy Red-Squirrel to tie his +hands behind his back. + +"Well, I see I'll have to whip Sandy Chipmunk just as I am," Rowdy +grumbled. "It won't be much fun for me." + +"I don't believe it will," Jasper Jay agreed. + +"After I whip him, you'll have to find six more chipmunks for me, if you +want to see me fight them all at once," Rowdy Red-Squirrel told Jasper +Jay. + +"I'll do it--if you whip Sandy," Jasper promised. And he laughed so hard +that he almost tumbled off the limb. + + + + +XVI + +ROWDY RUNS AWAY + + +Rowdy Red-Squirrel jumped from one tree into another until he reached the +beech tree in which Jasper Jay had caught sight of Sandy Chipmunk. + +Now, Sandy had not seen Rowdy stealing upon him. And the first he knew +about the fight was when he happened to turn around. Then he saw Rowdy +Red-Squirrel right in front of him. And before Sandy could move, Rowdy +had jumped straight at him. + +Now, as you know, Sandy Chipmunk was not the most nimble of climbers. He +was a ground-squirrel; and though he often climbed into the lower +branches of trees, he always felt more comfortable on the top of a +rail-fence or a stone wall. + +But Rowdy Red-Squirrel could cling to the smallest branch. The more it +swayed beneath his weight the better he liked it. His hardest battles had +been fought in the tree-tops. You see, he was never the least bit afraid +of falling. + +Sandy Chipmunk was plucky--as you know. And at first he had no thought of +running away, when Rowdy Red-Squirrel jumped at him. Even when Rowdy sank +his sharp teeth into one of his ears, Sandy fought his hardest. But when +Rowdy pulled on his ear, Sandy's feet almost slipped off the limb. + +Then Sandy tried to get away. And at last he tore his ear out of Rowdy +Red-Squirrel's mouth and scurried quickly to the ground. + +Rowdy Red-Squirrel, dashing after him, shouted with glee. + +"He's running away from me! I've whipped him!" he called to Jasper Jay, +who had come nearer, to see the fight. + +Sandy Chipmunk had reached the stone wall between the woods and the +pasture. And he was still running. But the moment Rowdy Red-Squirrel +sprang upon the wall, to his great surprise Sandy whisked around and +jumped straight at _him_. + +It was Rowdy's turn to be startled. And when Sandy gave his nose a cruel +bite Rowdy turned tail and darted off as fast as he could go. + +After him dashed Sandy Chipmunk. No longer was he afraid of falling. He +was quite at home on the stone wall. He knew every stone in it, and every +nook and cranny. He knew exactly the best way to run along that old +wall. So all he had to think about now was catching Rowdy Red-Squirrel. + +But Rowdy escaped. After he had run a long way he jumped into a tree and +climbed to the very top of it, where Sandy Chipmunk did not care to +follow him. + +"Come down here, if you want to fight," Sandy called to him. + +"You can't fool me," Rowdy answered. "The _other six of you_ are hiding +behind the wall. And the moment I came down you'd all jump at me again. I +said I could whip _six_ chipmunks. But _seven_ are one too many." + +Sandy Chipmunk didn't know what Rowdy was talking about. And he could not +understand what made Jasper Jay laugh so loudly. + +"You played a trick on me!" Rowdy told Jasper Jay. "You had six +chipmunks hidden behind that wall. And as soon as I came down where they +were, they all sprang at me. With Sandy Chipmunk, there were _seven_ of +them. And that's one too many." + +"Ha! ha!" laughed Jasper Jay. "Yes! There's _one too many for you_. Sandy +Chipmunk is _one too many for you_!" And he flew away to tell the joke to +every one. + +You see, Rowdy had been so frightened when Sandy turned and bit his nose +that he actually thought there must be at least seven chipmunks chasing +him. + +Though he boasted just as much afterwards, Rowdy Red-Squirrel never +wanted to fight Sandy Chipmunk again. + + + + +XVII + +CORN-PLANTING TIME + + +It was late in the spring. And Sandy Chipmunk couldn't help wishing it +was late in the fall instead. The reason for that was this: He could find +very little to eat anywhere in Pleasant Valley. It was too early for +fruit or nuts. It was even too early for many insects. And it seemed to +Sandy that all the insects flew much higher than they did when there were +plenty of other things to eat. + +At last Sandy chanced to see Mr. Crow in the woods one day. Mr. Crow was +just about to fly somewhere. He seemed to be in a great hurry. In fact, +he did not want to stop to talk--which was most unusual with him. + +"I can't chat with you to-day," Mr. Crow told Sandy. "I have business to +attend to. It's something I've been expecting for a long time. And I +don't want to be late." + +"Where are you going?" Sandy asked. + +"That--" said Mr. Crow--"that is something that doesn't concern you, +young man." And then he flapped his way through the woods and out of +sight. + +Now, it happened that Sandy Chipmunk remembered at once what Uncle +Jerry Chuck had said a few days before. Uncle Jerry had said that Mr. +Crow had told him Farmer Green was about to plant corn. So Sandy +guessed that Mr. Crow was going to the field where Farmer Green and his +hired man were working. + +"I'll run over there and see what's going on!" Sandy exclaimed. "If +they're planting corn I have just as much right to eat some as Mr. +Crow has." + +Of course, Mr. Crow reached the ploughed field long before Sandy +Chipmunk. It took Mr. Crow no time at all to sail through the air and +drop down at a good, safe distance from where Farmer Green and his hired +man were planting corn. They had already planted several long rows. And +Mr. Crow at once set to work to scratch up the yellow kernels and swallow +them greedily. + +He was enjoying his meal greatly when he caught sight of a small, striped +person busily engaged in doing the very same thing. It was Sandy +Chipmunk! And Mr. Crow hurried over to the row where Sandy was looking +for corn. + +"What are you doing here?" Mr. Crow asked angrily. + +"I might ask you the same question," Sandy answered. + +"You followed me--that's what you did!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "Of all the +prying busybodies I know, you are certainly the worst. This is not your +field; and I shall have to ask you to leave it at once." + +"Oh! I'll leave the field," said Sandy Chipmunk. "I don't want the field. +You can have _that_. All I want is some of the corn. There ought to be +enough for both of us." + +Mr. Crow muttered something about _impertinence_, which Sandy Chipmunk +didn't understand. Then Mr. Crow said: + +"This corn belongs to Farmer Green. Just because I've come to help him, +and because I've scratched up a few of the kernels to see if he's +planting them properly, you seem to think I'm _eating corn_." + +"I certainly do," said Sandy Chipmunk. + +"Well, what an idea!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. + +Strange as it may seem, Farmer Green had the same idea that Sandy +Chipmunk had. He happened to catch sight of old Mr. Crow. And pretty soon +Johnnie Green came hurrying up the field, along the fence. He hoped Mr. +Crow wouldn't see him. + +But old Mr. Crow generally saw any one coming his way--especially if the +person happened to have a gun on his shoulder. + +"I've important business over in the woods," he told Sandy Chipmunk +suddenly. And he flew off in great haste. + +So Sandy stayed and ate all the corn he wanted. He was so small and so +nearly the same color as the ploughed field that Johnnie Green never saw +him at all. + +After that Mr. Crow would scarcely speak to Sandy for several days. He +said that Sandy was a nuisance. + +"A person can't go anywhere without that Chipmunk boy following him," Mr. +Crow complained. "You know, I'm helping Farmer Green plant his corn. And +Sandy Chipmunk followed me to the corn-patch. And what do you think? He +actually began to _eat_ the corn! Now, who ever heard of such a thing?" + +But Mr. Crow fooled nobody but himself. Every one knew that he ate more +of Farmer Green's corn than anybody else unless it was Farmer Green. And +_he_ always waited until it was ripe. + +The trouble with Mr. Crow was this: He didn't want any one but himself to +visit the cornfield. He wanted all the corn for an old gentleman known as +_Mr. Crow_. + + + + +XVIII + +SANDY LIKES MILK + + +Sandy Chipmunk liked milk. He never knew it, though, until he chanced to +come upon a saucerful which some one had set out on the big flat stone +that served as the back doorstep of the farmhouse. + +Sandy crept up and sniffed at the white liquid in the saucer. It smelled +very good. So he tasted it. And it tasted so much better, even, than it +smelled that he drank every drop of it. + +Sandy was sitting on the big stone step, washing his face, when Farmer +Green's cat leaped out of the doorway. + +The cat was very angry. And it was no wonder, because Sandy Chipmunk had +drunk her breakfast. She seemed to think that since Sandy had made away +with her breakfast it would be only fair if she should make away with +_him_. + +[Illustration: Farmer Green's Cat Leaped Out of the Doorway] + +But Sandy did not agree with her at all. Though he had washed only one +side of his face, he jumped sideways off the step and ran and hid in the +woodpile close by. + +You might think he would have had to stay there a long time. For the old +cat crouched down and watched the hole into which Sandy had crawled. She +seemed to have made up her mind to wait there until Sandy came out of +that hole again. + +If she had waited for that to happen she would have been there yet. For +Sandy crept through the woodpile, stole out the other side of it, and ran +home. + +He was glad to get away from the cat. But he was sorry there wasn't more +of that delicious drink which he had found in the saucer. + +Later that day Sandy told Fatty Coon what had happened. + +"I know what that was," Fatty Coon exclaimed. "It was milk." + +"I wonder where Farmer Green gets it," Sandy said. + +"From the cows, of course!" Fatty replied. + +"You don't say so!" Sandy Chipmunk cried. "I'm glad to know it." And he +scampered off across the pasture, toward three of Farmer Green's cows +which were chewing their cuds under the shade of a big maple tree. + +When Sandy asked them if they would please give him some milk to drink +two of the cows (they were the good-natured ones) only smiled at each +other. But the third cow (a surly old creature with long, sharp horns) +told him not to be silly. + +Well, Sandy Chipmunk saw that he could get no milk there. And he was +feeling quite downcast when he chanced to meet Henry Skunk, to whom he +told his troubles. + +"Of course the cows couldn't give you any milk!" Henry Skunk said. "It's +not milking time yet. So what could they do? You go down to the barnyard +late this afternoon and you'll find all the milk you could drink in a +thousand years." + +Sandy Chipmunk thanked him. And somehow he managed to wait until the +afternoon was almost gone. Then he skipped down the hill to Farmer +Green's barn. He thought it must be milking time, because Johnnie Green +and old dog Spot had driven all the cows home. + + + + +XIX + +WHAT THE OLD COW DID + + +When Sandy Chipmunk reached Farmer Green's barn he crept inside and +looked all around. He had expected to find the barn crowded with saucers +full of milk. But not a single saucer did he see. There were two long +rows of cows stabled in the barn. And Sandy noticed Farmer Green and his +boy and his hired man, each sitting on a low stool beside a cow. They +were milking the cows. But Sandy did not know it. + +He began to think that Henry Skunk had played a trick on him. And he was +about to leave the barn when he turned to look at several bright tin +pails standing on the floor. + +Sandy crept up to one of them and sniffed at it. He was glad that he had +done that, for he smelled _milk_. There was no mistake about it. + +Sandy Chipmunk couldn't crawl up the side of the pail, it was so smooth +and slippery. So he jumped right up and stood on its edge. And looking +inside, he saw that the pail was almost full of milk. He knew then that +Henry Skunk had told the truth. + +By bending down Sandy was just able to reach the milk. And he began +drinking it as fast as he could. It was so delicious that he forgot all +about Johnnie Green and his father and the hired man. + +With his head inside the pail, of course Sandy couldn't see what happened +in the barn. The more he drank, the further down he had to stretch his +neck. And when at last he heard a shout, and a milking-stool came sailing +through the air not far above the pail, Sandy was so startled that he +lost his balance and went _plump_! into the milk. + +Luckily, Sandy Chipmunk knew how to swim. So he managed to keep his nose +in the air or he would certainly have drowned. + +"Where on earth did that chipmunk go?" he heard Johnnie Green say as he +picked up his stool. You see, Johnnie never once thought of looking +inside the pail. + +Still, Sandy Chipmunk was in a fix. For the inside of the pail was as +smooth and slippery as the outside. And of course he couldn't _jump_ out, +for there was nothing from which he could spring. + +Now it happened that the pail of milk stood not far behind the surly old +cow that had told Sandy not to be silly, when he asked her for some milk +to drink, in the pasture that day. Johnnie Green's shouting and the stool +hurtling through the air displeased her. And since she was not the sort +to hide her ill nature, she promptly kicked the milkpail over. + +For a moment Sandy Chipmunk thought that this time the end of the world +had certainly come. The old cow's foot crashed against the pail and sent +it flying against the stone wall on which the barn was built. And Sandy +tumbled out upon the floor in a sea of milk. + +He didn't wait to learn exactly what had happened. For as soon as he +could scramble to his feet he dashed out of the barn and tore across the +fields towards the pasture. + +Later, when he reached his house and sat down to rest, he soon forgot +his fright. For he had a very pleasant time licking himself clean. That +was the way Sandy Chipmunk always made himself spick and span. And though +there may be some people who would not consider such an act to be in the +best of taste, Sandy Chipmunk thought what was left of the milk _tasted +very good_. And since his mother did not object to what he was doing, +perhaps no one else ought to. + + +THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Sandy Chipmunk, by Arthur Scott Bailey + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF SANDY CHIPMUNK *** + +This file should be named sandy10.txt or sandy10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, sandy11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, sandy10a.txt + +Produced by Thanks to Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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