By the expression of Happy Jack's face it was quite clear that he
didn't know it. "Certainly I can swim," said Chatterer. I don't
mind the water at all. I can swim a long distance if I have to."

This was quite as much news to Peter Rabbit as had been the fact
that a cousin of his own was a good swimmer, and he began to feel
something very like respect for Chatterer.

"Are there any other Tree Squirrels?" asked Jumper the Hare.

"Yes," replied Old Mother Nature, "there are two--the handsomest
of all the family. They live out in the Southwest, in one of the
most wonderful places in all this great land, a place called the
Grand Canyon. One is called the Abert Squirrel and the other the
Kaibab Squirrel. They are about the size of Happy Jack and Rusty
but have broader, handsomer tails and their ears have long tufts
of hair. The Abert Squirrel has black ears, a brown back, gray
sides and white underneath. Kaibab has brown ears with black
tips, and his tail is mostly white. Both are very lovely, but
their families are small and so they are little known."

With this, Old Mother Nature dismissed school for the day.



CHAPTER VI Striped Chipmunk and his Cousins

Of course there couldn't be a school in the Green Forest without
news of it spreading very fast. News travels quickly through the
Green Forest and over the Green Meadows, for the little people who