Now, Sandy Chipmunk knew better than to contradict his mother. So all he said was this:
"Let's go outside and listen!"
Still smiling, Mrs. Chipmunk went to the door again with Sandy. And pretty soon they heard a long, far-off wail.
"There!" he cried. "That's it! Don't you hear it, Mother?"
"That—" Mrs. Chipmunk said—"that is nothing but the whistle of an engine, way down at the other end of Pleasant Valley."
III
THE BROKEN EGG
Nuts and grains were what Sandy Chipmunk ate more than anything else. But sometimes when he could not find enough of those, or when he wanted a change of food, he would eat almost any sort of berry, and apples and pears as well. Tomatoes, too, he liked once in a while. And he was very fond of sunflower seeds. He would not refuse a fat insect, either, if it flew his way. But these were not the only dainties that Sandy thought good. There was something else—something to be found in trees—for which Sandy sometimes hunted. And before he came home, after finding what he was looking for, he always wiped his mouth with great care.
If you had ever seen him wiping his mouth like that, you might have guessed that Sandy Chipmunk had been eating birds' eggs. And the reason he was so careful to remove all signs of his feast was because he did not want his mother to know what he had been doing.
Now you have heard the worst there is to know about Sandy Chipmunk.