ipmunk, for you
know they are all cousins.

Whitefoot the Wood Mouse happened along, and Striped Chipmunk insisted
that he should join the party. Later Sammy Jay came along, and nothing
would excuse him from sharing in the feast, too. When everybody had
eaten and eaten until they couldn't hold another thing, and it was time
to think of going home, Striped Chipmunk insisted that Happy Jack and
Chatterer should divide between them the big, fat hickory nuts that were
left, and they did without once quarreling about it.

"Thanksgiving comes but once a year,
And when it comes it brings good cheer,"

said Striped Chipmunk to himself as he watched his guests depart.

CHAPTER XII

HAPPY JACK DOES SOME THINKING

To call another a thief doesn't make him one.

_Happy Jack._

Happy Jack sat up in a chestnut tree, and his face was very sober. The
fact is, Happy Jack was doing some very hard thinking. This is so very
unusual for him that Sammy Jay stopped to ask if he was sick. You see he
is naturally a happy-go-lucky little scamp, and that is one reason that
he is called Happy Jack. But this morning he was thinking and thinking
hard, so hard, in fact, that he almost lost his temper when Sammy Jay
interrupted his thoughts with such a foolish question.

What was he thinking about? Can you not guess? Why, he was thinking
about those big, fat hickory nuts that Striped Chipmunk had had for his
Thanksgiving dinner, and how Striped Chipmunk had given him some of them
to bring home. He was very sure that they were the very same nuts that
he had watched grow big and fat in the top of the tall hickory tree and
then had knocked down while chasing his cousin, Chatterer. When they had
reached the ground and found the nuts gone, Happy Jack had at once
suspected that Striped Chipmunk had taken them, and now he felt sure
about it.

But all at once things looked very different to Happy Jack, and the more
he thought about how he had acted, the more ashamed of himself he grew.

"There certainly must have been enough of those nuts for all of us, and
if I hadn't been so greedy we might all have had a share. As it is, I've
got only those that Striped Chipmunk gave me, and Chatterer has only
those that Striped Chipmunk gave him. It must be that that sharp little
cousin of mine with the striped coat has got the rest, and I guess he
deserves them."

Then all of a sudden Happy Jack realized how Striped Chipmunk had
fooled him