happy: He didn't have to bother to wipe his mouth before he let his
mother see him.




IV

BUILDING A HOUSE


There came a day when Sandy Chipmunk decided that he was old enough and
big enough to make a house of his own. He was not the sort of person to
think and think about a thing and put off the doing of it from one day to
another. So the moment the idea of a house popped into his head Sandy
Chipmunk began hunting for a good place to dig.

It was not long before he found a bit of ground that seemed to him the
very best spot for a home that any one could want.

The place where he intended to make his front door was in the middle of a
smooth plot among some beech trees. Farmer Green's cows had clipped the
grass short all around. And Sandy knew that he could have a neat dooryard
without being obliged to go to the trouble of cutting the grass himself.
But what he liked most of all about the place was that as he stood there
he could look all around in every direction. That was just what he
wanted, because whenever he wished to leave his new house he would be
able to peep out and see whether anybody was waiting to catch him.

So Sandy Chipmunk took off his little, short coat, folded it carefully,