flash, Chatterer started down
the tree. Then Happy Jack guessed too, and down he started as fast as he
could go, crying, "Stop, thief!" all the way.

When he reached the ground, there was Chatterer scurrying around and
poking under the fallen leaves, but he hadn't found a single nut. Happy
Jack couldn't stop to quarrel any more, because you see he was afraid
that Chatterer would find the biggest and fattest nuts, so he began to
scurry around and hunt too. It was queer, very queer, how those nuts
could have hidden so! They hunted and hunted, but no nuts were to be
found. Then they stopped and stared up at the top of the tall hickory
tree. Not a nut could they see. Then they stared at each other, and
gradually a foolish, a very foolish look crept over each face.

"Where--where do you suppose they have gone?" asked Happy Jack in a
queer-sounding voice.

Just then they heard some one laughing fit to kill himself. It was Peter
Rabbit.

"Did you take our hickory nuts?" they both shouted angrily.

"No," replied Peter, "no, I didn't take them, though they were not
yours, anyway!" And then he went off into another fit of laughter, for
Peter had seen Striped Chipmunk very hard at work taking away those very
nuts while his two big cousins had been quarreling in the tree-top.

CHAPTER V

HAPPY JACK SUSPECTS STRIPED CHIPMUNK

Thrift is one test of true loyalty to your country.

_Happy Jack._

Happy Jack didn't look happy a bit. Indeed, Happy Jack looked very
unhappy. You see, he looked just as he felt. He had set his heart on
having all the big, fat nuts that he had found in the top of that tall
hickory tree, and now, instead of having all of them, he hadn't any of
them. Worse still, he knew right down in his heart that it was his own
fault. He had been too greedy. But what _had_ become of those nuts?

Happy Jack was studying about this as he sat with his back against a
big chestnut tree. He remembered how hard Peter Rabbit had laughed when
Happy Jack and his cousin, Chatterer the Red Squirrel, had been so
surprised because they could not find the nuts they had knocked down.
Peter hadn't taken them, for Peter has no use for them, but he must know
what had become of them, for he was still laughing as he had gone off
down the Lone Little Path. While he was thinking of all this, Happy
Jack's bright eyes had been wide open, as they usually are, so that no
danger should come near. Suddenly they saw something moving