he 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 little tails wriggled for an instant in the air--then a
dead silence reigned over the deserted scene.

"Bien, them's have dive into de bo'-els of de eart'," said Henri with
a broad grin.

Presently a thousand noses appeared, and nervously disappeared, like
the wink of an eye. Then they appeared again, and a thousand pair of
eyes followed. Instantly, like Jack in the box, they were all on the
top of their hillocks again, chattering and wagging their little tails
as vigorously as ever. You could not say that you _saw_ them jump out
of their holes. Suddenly, as if by magic, they _were_ out; then Dick
tossed up his arms, and suddenly, as if by magic, they were gone!

Their number was incredible, and their cities were full of riotous
activity. What their occupations were the hunters could not ascertain,
but it was perfectly evident that they visited a great deal and
gossiped tremendously, for they ran about from house to house, and sat
chatting in groups; but it was also observed that they never went far
from their own houses. Each seemed to have a circle of acquaintance in
the immediate neighbourhood of his own residence, to which in case of
sudden danger he always fled.

But another thing about these prairie-dogs (perhaps, considering their
size, we should call them prairie-doggies), another thi