into thinking that the storehouse of Chatterer was his
storehouse, and Happy Jack began to laugh. The more he thought of it,
the harder he laughed.

"The joke certainly is on me!" he exclaimed. "The joke certainly is on
me, and it served me right. Hereafter I'll mind my own business. If I
had spent half as much time looking for hickory nuts as I did looking
for Striped Chipmunk's storehouse, I would be ready for winter now, and
Chatterer couldn't call me a thief."

Then he laughed again as he thought how Striped Chipmunk must have
enjoyed seeing him pulled out of Chatterer's storehouse by the tail.

"What's the joke?" asked Bobby Coon, who happened along just then.

"I've just learned a lesson," replied Happy Jack.

"What is it?" asked Bobby.

Happy Jack grinned as he answered:

"I've found that greed will never, never pay.
It makes one cross and ugly, and it drives one's friends away.
And being always selfish and always wanting more,
One's very apt to lose the things that one has had before."

"Pooh!" said Bobby Coon. "Have you just found that out? I learned that a
long time ago."

CHAPTER XIII

HAPPY JACK GETS A WARNING

It matters not how smart you are,
So be it you are heedless too.
It isn't what you know that counts
So much as what it is to you.

_Happy Jack._

A fat Gray Squirrel is very tempting to a number of people in the Green
Forest, particularly in winter, when getting a living is hard work.
Almost every day Reddy and Granny Fox stole softly through that part of
the Green Forest where Happy Jack Squirrel lived, hoping to surprise and
catch him on the ground. But they never did. Roughleg the Hawk and
Hooty the Owl wasted a great deal of time, sitting around near Happy
Jack's home, hoping to catch him when he was not watching, but they
never did.

Happy Jack knew all about these big hungry neighbors, and he was always
on the watch for them. He knew their ways and just where they would be
likely to hide. He took the greatest care to look into every such hiding
place near at hand before he ventured down out of the trees, and because
these hungry neighbors are so big, he never had any trouble in seeing
them if they happened to be around. So Happy Jack didn't do much
worrying about them. The fact is, Happy Jack wasn't afraid of them at
all, for the simple reason that he knew they couldn't follow him into
his hollow tree.

Having nuts stored away