way over in the Green Forest. Happy Jack stopped humming and listened.
He knew that voice. It was his cousin's voice--the voice of Chatterer
the Red Squirrel. Happy Jack frowned. "I hope he won't come over this
way," muttered Happy Jack. He does not love his cousin Chatterer anyway,
and then there was the big tree full of hickory nuts! He didn't want
Chatterer to find that.

I am afraid that Happy Jack was selfish. There were more nuts than he
could possibly eat in one winter, and yet he wasn't willing that his
cousin, Chatterer the Red Squirrel, should have a single one. Now
Chatterer is short-tempered and a great scold. Some one or something
had upset him this morning, and he was scolding as fast as his tongue
could go, as he came running right towards the tree in which Happy Jack
was sitting. Happy Jack sat perfectly still and watched. He didn't move
so much as the tip of his big gray tail. Would Chatterer go past and not
see that big tree full of nuts? It looked very much as if he would, for
he was so busy scolding that he wasn't paying much attention to other
things.

Happy Jack smiled as Chatterer came running under the tree without once
looking up. He was so tickled that he started to hug himself and didn't
remember that he was holding a big, fat nut in his hands. Of course he
dropped it. Where do you think it went? Well, Sir, it fell straight
down, from the top of that tall tree, and it landed right on the head of
Chatterer the Red Squirrel!

"My stars!" cried Chatterer, stopping his scolding and his running
together, and rubbing his head where the nut had hit him. Then he looked
up to see where it had come from. Of course, he looked straight up at
Happy Jack.