"What are you doing that for?" asked Peter Rabbit.
"Doing it for? Why, I'm getting ready for winter, of course, stupid!" said Happy Jack, as he paused for breath.
"But I thought you stored your nuts and corn in a hollow tree!" exclaimed Peter Rabbit.
"So I do," replied Happy Jack, "but I would be foolish to put all my supplies in one place, so I bury some of them."
"But how do you remember where you bury them?" persisted Peter.
"I don't always, but when I forget, my nose helps me out. Then I just dig down and get them," said Happy Jack. "Now I can't stop to talk any more, for I am late this year, and the first thing I know winter will be here."
Then Peter remembered what he had come for. "Oh, Happy Jack, what did Johnny Chuck and Grandfather Frog and Ol' Mistah Buzzard mean by saying that they would see me in the spring?" he cried.
"Can't stop to tell you now!" replied Happy Jack, running this way and that way, and pulling over the fallen leaves to hunt for another nut. "Winter's coming, and I've got to be ready for it. Can't stop to talk."
And that was all Peter Rabbit could get out of him, although he followed Happy Jack about and bothered him with questions until Happy Jack quite lost his temper. Peter sighed. He saw Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Striped Chipmunk both quite as busy as Happy Jack.
"It's of no use to ask them, for they are doing the same thing that Happy Jack is," thought Peter. "I don't see the use of all this fuss about winter, anyway. I don't have to get ready for it. I believe I'll go down to the Smiling Pool again and see if maybe Grandfather Frog has come up."