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 wouldn'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 didn'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 Chipmunk
should return, or any one else should happen along and see him. Soon the
hole was big enough for him to get his head inside. It was a storehouse,
sure enough. Happy Jack worked harder than ever, and soon the hole was
large enough for him to get wholly inside.
What a sight! There was corn! and there were chestnuts and acorns! and
there were a few hickory nuts, though these did not look so big and fat
as the ones Happy Jack was looking for! Happy Jack chuckled to himself,
a wicked, greedy chuckle, as he looked. And then something happened.
"Oh! Oh! Stop it! Leave me alone!" yelled Happy Jack.