Striped Chipmunk was whisking about among the brown-and-yellow leaves that covered the ground on the edge of the Green Forest . He is such a little fellow that he looked almost like a brown leaf himself , and when one of Old Mother West Wind 's Merry Little Breezes whirled the brown leaves in a mad little dance around him , it was the hardest work in the world to see Striped Chipmunk at all . Anyway , Happy Jack Squirrel found it so . You see , Happy Jack was spying on Striped Chipmunk . Yes , Sir , Happy Jack was spying . Spying , you know , is secretly watching other people and trying to find out what they are doing . It is n't a nice thing to do , not a bit nice . Happy Jack knew it , and all the time he was doing it , he was feeling very much ashamed of himself . But he said to himself that he just had to know where Striped Chipmunk 's storehouse was , because he just had to peep inside and find out if it held any of the big , fat hickory nuts that had disappeared from under the tall hickory tree while he was quarreling up in the top of it with his cousin , Chatterer the Red Squirrel . But spying on Striped Chipmunk is n't the easiest thing in the world . Happy Jack was finding it the hardest work he had ever undertaken . Striped Chipmunk is so spry , and whisks about so , that you need eyes all around your head to keep track of him . Happy Jack found that his two eyes , bright and quick as they are , could n't keep that little elf of a cousin of his always in sight . Every few minutes he would disappear and then bob up again in the most unexpected place and most provoking way . `` Now I 'm here , and now I 'm there ! Now I am not anywhere ! Watch me now , for here I go Out of sight ! I told you so ! '' With the last words , Striped Chipmunk was nowhere to be seen . It seemed as if the earth must have opened and swallowed him .
But it had n't , for two minutes later Happy XXXXX saw him flirting his funny little tail in the sauciest way as he scampered along an old log .
Chatterer Chipmunk Forest Jack Mother Squirrel bit elf leaf minutes