tail. You see, his mouth was so full that he couldn't say a word.

"I was going to ask him about his name," Jimmy Rabbit remarked. "I've
almost made up my mind that he doesn't know any more about it than
anybody else."

"Probably he doesn't," Fatty Coon agreed. "But it's easy to see why he's
called Sandy. He likes to dig in the _sandy_ soil in this pasture."

"I don't agree with you," Billy Woodchuck said. "_I_ think he was named
Sandy on account of his yellowish, reddish, brownish color."

Some of the others thought that Billy might have guessed the right
answer. But Frisky Squirrel told them that that wasn't the reason at all.

"It's because he's _plucky_," he declared. "You know, _gritty_ is the
same as _plucky_. And _sandy_ is the same as _gritty_. That's the
reason," Frisky said. "It's plain as the nose on your face." He was
looking straight at Tommy Fox as he said that.

Now, Tommy Fox had a very long nose. And he became angry at once. His
face would have grown red, probably, if it hadn't been that color always.

"You don't know what you're talking about!" he snapped.

Old Mr. Crow, who sat in a tree nearby, nodded his head.

"You're all wrong," he told them. "The reason for calling that young
Chipmunk boy Sandy is because his real name is Alexander. And everybody
who knows anything at all knows that Sandy is just a short way of saying