CHAPTER VIII HAPPY JACK TURNS BURGLAR As trees from little acorns , so Great sums from little pennies grow . Happy Jack . Happy Jack Squirrel stood in front of the old stump into which he had seen Striped Chipmunk go with the pockets in his cheeks full of acorns , and out of which he had come with the pockets of his cheeks quite empty . `` It certainly is his storehouse , and now I 'll find out if he is the one who got all those big , fat hickory nuts , '' muttered Happy Jack . First he looked this way , and then he looked that way , to be sure that no one saw him , for what he was planning to do was a very dreadful thing , and he knew it . Happy Jack was going to turn burglar . A burglar , you know , is one who breaks into another 's house or barn to steal , which is a very , very dreadful thing to do . Yet this is just what Happy Jack Squirrel was planning to do . He was going to get into that old stump , and if those big , fat hickory nuts were there , as he was sure they were , he was going to take them . He tried very hard to make himself believe that it would n't be stealing . He had watched those nuts in the top of the tall hickory tree so long that he had grown to think that they belonged to him . Of course they did n't , but he had made himself think they did . Happy Jack walked all around the old stump , and then he climbed up on top of it . There was only one doorway , and that was the little round hole through which Striped Chipmunk had entered and then come out . It was too small for Happy Jack to even get his head through , though his cousin , Chatterer the Red Squirrel , who is much smaller , could have slipped in easily . Happy Jack sniffed and sniffed . He could smell nuts and corn and other good things . My , how good they did smell ! His eyes shone greedily . Happy Jack took one more hasty look around to see that no one was watching , then with his long sharp teeth he began to make the doorway larger .
The wood was tough , but Happy Jack worked with might and main , for he wanted to get those nuts and get away before Striped XXXXX should return , or any one else should happen along and see him .
Chatterer Chipmunk First Jack Squirrel course eyes house stealing top