's no thunder in the air jist
now; we'll make for yonder clump o' bushes and lay by till it's past."

Turning a little to the right of the course they had been following, the
hunters galloped along one of the hollows between the prairie waves
before mentioned, in the direction of a clump of willows. Before
reaching it however, they passed over a bleak and barren plain where
there was neither flower nor bird. Here they were suddenly arrested by
a most extraordinary sight--at least it was so to Dick Varley, who had
never seen the like before. This was a colony of what Joe called
"prairie-dogs." On first beholding them Crusoe uttered a sort of half
growl, half bark of surprise, cocked his tail and ears, and instantly
prepared to charge, but he glanced up at his master first for
permission. Observing that his finger and his look commanded "silence"
he dropped his tail at once and stepped to the rear. He did not,
however, cease to regard the prairie-dogs with intense curiosity.

These remarkable little creatures have been egregiously misnamed by the
hunters of the west, for they bear not the slightest resemblance to
dogs, either in formation or habits. They are, in fact, the marmot, and
in size are little larger than squirrels, which animals they resemble in
some degree. They burrow under the light soil and throw it up in mounds
like moles.

Thousands of them were running about among their dwellings when Dick
first beheld them, but the moment they caught sight of the horsemen
rising over the ridge, they set up a tremendous hubbub of consternation;
each little beast instantly mounted guard on the top of his house and
prepared, as it were, to "receive cavalry."

The most ludicrous thing about them was, that although the most timid
and cowardly creatures in the world, they seemed the most impertinent
things that ever lived! Knowing that their holes afforded them a
perfectly safe retreat they sat close beside them, and as the hunters
slowly approached, they elevated their heads, wagged their little tails,
showed their teeth, and chattered at them like monkeys. The nearer they
came the more angry and furious did the prairie-dogs become, until Dick
Varley almost fell off his horse with suppressed laughter. They let the
hunters come close up, waxing louder and louder in their wrath; but the
instant a hand was raised to throw a stone or point a gun, a thousand
little heads dived into a thousand holes, and a thousand li