"'This is what I get for meddling in the affairs of other folks!'
said little Mr. Chipmunk bitterly. 'If I'd just minded my own
business, it wouldn't have happened.'

"Just then he happened to look over to the house of Mr. Meadow Mouse.
There was Mr. Meadow Mouse playing with his children. He didn't know a
thing about what his neighbor, little Mr. Chipmunk, had done for him,
for you remember he hadn't seen Mr. Bob Cat at all. Little Mr.
Chipmunk grinned as well as he could for the pain.

"'I'm glad I did it,' he muttered. 'Yes, Sir, I'm glad I did it, and
I'm glad that Neighbor Meadow Mouse doesn't know about it. I'm glad
that nobody knows about it.

'A kindly deed's most kindly done
In secret wrought, and seen of none.

And so I'm glad that no one knows.'

"Now just imagine how surprised little Mr. Chipmunk was, when in the
fall it came time to put on a new coat, to have Old Mother Nature hand
him out a beautiful striped coat instead of the little plain brown
coat he had expected. Old Mother Nature's eyes twinkled as she said:

"'There's a stripe for every tear made in your old coat by the claws
of Mr. Bob Cat the day you saved Mr. Meadow Mouse. They are honor
stripes, and hereafter you and your children and your children's
children shall always wear stripes.'