fact that this piece of string kept moving. Every few seconds it gave a
little jerk. Whoever heard of a piece of string moving all by itself?
Certainly Striped Chipmunk never had. He couldn't understand it.

For a few minutes he watched it from the top rail of the old fence. Then
he scurried down to the ground and, a few steps at a time, stopping to
watch sharply between each little run, he drew nearer and nearer to that
queer acting string. It gave him a funny feeling inside to see a string
acting like that, so he was very careful not to get too near. He looked
at it from one side, then ran around and looked at it from the other
side. At last he got where he could see that one end of the string was
under an old board, and then he began to understand. Of course there was
somebody hiding under that old board and jerking the string.

[Illustration: He seized the other end of the string and began to pull.
_Page 88._]

Striped Chipmunk sat down and scratched his head thoughtfully. Whoever
was pulling that string couldn't be very big, or they would never have
been able to crawl under that old board, therefore he needn't be afraid.
A gleam of mischief twinkled in Striped Chipmunk's eyes. He seized the
other end of the string and began to pull. Such a jerking and yanking as
began right away! But he held on and pulled harder. Then out from under
the old board appeared the queer webbed feet of Grandfather Frog tied
together. Striped Chipmunk was so surprised that he let go of the string
and nearly fell over backward.

"Why, Grandfather Frog, what under the sun are you doing here?" he
shouted.