Once upon a time there
were two chipmunks, a male and a female. The male chipmunk thought
that arranging nuts in artistic patters was more fun that just piling
them up to see how many you could pile up. The female was all for
piling up as many as you could. She told her husband that if he
gave up making designs with the nuts there would be room in their
large cave for a great many more and he would soon become the wealthiest
chipmunk in the woods. But he would not let her interfere with his
designs, so she flew into a rage and left him.. "The shrike
will get you," she said, "because you are helpless and
cannot look after yourself." To be sure, the female chipmunk
had not been gone three nights before the male had to dress for
a banquet and could not find his studs or shirt or suspenders. So
he couldnt go to the banquet, but that was just as well, because
all the chipmunks who did go were attached and killed by a weasel.
The next day the shrike
began hanging around outside the chipmunks cave, waiting to
catch him. The shrike couldnt get in because the doorway was
clogged up with soiled laundry and dirty dishes. "He will come
out for a walk after breakfast and I will get him then," thought
the shrike. But the chipmunk slept all day and did not get up
and have breakfast until
after dark. Then he came out for a breath of fresh air before beginning
work on a new design. The shrike swooped down to snatch the chipmunk,
but could not see very well on account of the dark, so he batted
his head against an alder branch and was killed.
A few days later the
female chipmunk returned and saw the awful mess the house was in.
She went to the bed and shook her husband. "What would you
do without me?" she demanded. "Just go on living, I guess,"
he said. "You wouldnt last five days," she told
him. She swept the house and did the dishes and sent out the laundry,
and then she made the chipmunk get up and wash and dress. "You
cant be healthy in you lie in bed all day and never get any
exercise," she told him. So she took him for a walk in the
bright sunlight and they were both caught and killed by the shrikes
brother, a shrike named Stoop.
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