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 isn'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 isn'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, couldn'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 hadn't, for
two minutes later Happy Jack saw him flirting his funny little tail in
the sauciest way as he scampered along an old log.