He was about as long as
Chatterer the Red Squirrel but looked longer because of his slim
body and long neck. He was brown above and white below. His front
feet were white, and his hind feet rather whitish, but not clear
white. His short, round tail was black at the end. Somehow his
small head and sharp face made me think of a Snake. Ugh! I don't
like to think about him!"
"I saw him once, and he wasn't brown at all. Striped Chipmunk is
all wrong, excepting about the end of his tail," interrupted Jumper
the Hare. "He was all white, every bit of him but the end of his
tail, that was black."
"Striped Chipmunk is quite right and so are you," declared Old Mother
Nature. "Striped Chipmunk saw him in summer and you saw him in winter.
He changes his coat according to season, just as you do yourself,
Jumper. In winter he is trapped for his fur and he isn't called
Weasel then at all, but Ermine."
"Oh," said Jumper and looked as if he felt a wee bit foolish.
"What was he doing when you saw him?" asked Old Mother Nature, turning
to Striped Chipmunk.
"Hunting," replied Striped Chipmunk, and shivered. "He was hunting
me. He had found my tracks where I had been gathering beechnuts,
and he was following them with his nose just the way Bowser the
Hound follows Reddy Fox. I nearly died of fright when I saw him."
"You are lucky to be alive," declared Chatterer the Red Squirrel.
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