So Sandy escaped. To be sure, he was so far from
home that he didn’t know where he was.
But he was so glad to get out of the sack of wheat
that he didn’t worry about being lost.
He thought he could find some one who would know where
Farmer Green’s pasture was.
THE ROWDY OF THE WOODS
One of the most quarrelsome of all Sandy Chipmunk’s
neighbors was Rowdy Red-Squirrel. He was happiest
when he was fighting. But perhaps that was because
he had never lost a fight. If Rowdy had had a
sound beating, maybe fighting would not have seemed
so pleasant to him.
Ever since Rowdy whipped Frisky Squirrel, who (being
a gray squirrel) was bigger than he was, Rowdy bullied
every squirrel in the neighborhood—no matter
what color he might be. As for chipmunks, Rowdy
Red-Squirrel boasted that he could whip six chipmunks
at a time.
“That is, I could if they would stand still,”
he said. “Of course, if they ran off in
six different directions it might be a hard thing to
do.”
Rowdy was talking to Jasper Jay, who sat in a tree
not far away. His boasting amused Jasper.
First Jasper smiled. Then he laughed aloud.
And after that he gave a hoarse shriek, which rang
through the woods most unpleasantly. At least,
that was what Rowdy Red-Squirrel thought.
“What’s the joke?” he asked.
“The joke?” Jasper answered. “Why—ha!
ha!—you are the joke! I don’t
believe you can whip one chipmunk. And
when you talk of whipping six, I can’t
help laughing.”
“You wouldn’t laugh if I could catch you,”
Rowdy Red-Squirrel growled. And if he hadn’t
known that Jasper Jay would fly away, he would have
jumped into Jasper’s tree and chased him.
“You mustn’t expect me to believe you
can whip six until I’ve seen you whip
one,” Jasper went on. “There’s
Sandy Chipmunk in that beech tree. Why don’t
you steal over there and show me whether you can whip
him?”
“I’ll do it!” Rowdy cried.
“Not that I find much pleasure in fighting a
single chipmunk—for I can whip one
with my hands tied behind me.”
“Can you?” Jasper Jay asked. “Then
let me see you tie your hands.”
“I can’t!” Rowdy Red-Squirrel replied.
“Who ever heard of anybody who could tie his
own hands behind him?... You will have to do
that for me,” he said.
Jasper Jay gave another loud shriek and rocked back
and forth on the limb where he sat.
“Another joke!” he gasped—for
he was too clever to be caught like that. He
had no idea of going near enough to Rowdy Red-Squirrel
to tie his hands behind his back.
“Well, I see I’ll have to whip Sandy Chipmunk
just as I am,” Rowdy grumbled. “It
won’t be much fun for me.”
“I don’t believe it will,” Jasper
Jay agreed.
“After I whip him, you’ll have to find
six more chipmunks for me, if you want to see me fight
them all at once,” Rowdy Red-Squirrel told Jasper
Jay.
