And Mr. Chipmunk alone was pleasant and cheerful . `` When they reached the nut trees , what do you suppose they discovered ? Why , that they had been so greedy that they had eaten most of the nuts and it was going to be hard work to find and store a thousand nuts for old Mother Nature . Then they began to hurry , did Mr. Gray Squirrel and Mr. Fox Squirrel and Mr. Red Squirrel , each trying to make sure of his thousand nuts . They quarreled and they fought over the nuts on the ground and even up in the trees . And because they were so big and so strong , they pushed Mr. Chipmunk this way and they pushed him that way and often just as he was going to pick up a fat nut one of them would knock him over and make off with the prize . `` Poor Mr. Chipmunk kept his temper and was as polite as ever , but how he did work ! His cousins are great climbers and could get the nuts still left on the trees , but Mr. Chipmunk is a poor climber , so he had to be content with those on the ground . Of course he could carry only one nut at a time and his legs were so short that he had to run as fast as ever he could to store each nut in his secret store-house and get back for another . And while the others quarreled and fought , he hurried back and forth , back and forth , from early morning until jolly , round , red Mr. Sun pulled his night cap on behind the Purple Hills , hunting for nuts and putting them away in his secret store-house . `` But the nuts grew scarcer and scarcer on the ground and harder to find , for the other squirrels were picking them up too , and then they did not have so far to carry them . `` Sometimes one of his cousins up in the trees would drop a nut , but Mr. Chipmunk never would take it , not even when he was having hard work to find any , ` for , ' said he to himself , ` if my cousin drops a nut , it is his nut just the same . ' `` Finally Mr. Gray Squirrel announced that he had got his thousand nuts . Then Mr. Fox Squirrel announced that he had got his thousand nuts . The next day Mr. Red Squirrel stopped hunting because he had his thousand nuts . `` But Mr. Chipmunk had hardly more than half as many . And that night he made a dreadful discovery -- some one had found his secret store-house and had stolen some of his precious nuts . '' ` It 's of no use to cry over what ca n't be helped , ' said Mr. Chipmunk , and the next morning he bravely started out again . He had worked so hard that he had grown thinner and thinner until now he was only a shadow of his old self . But he was as cheerful as ever and kept right on hunting and hunting for stray nuts .
Mr. Gray Squirrel and Mr. Fox XXXXX and Mr. Red Squirrel sat around and rested and made fun of him .
Hills Mother Squirrel Sun climber climbers left night squirrels store-house