le village of
prairie dogs, Benny was tempted, for one wild moment, to dash up to the
men and tell them exactly what he thought.

But he remembered, in time, what the rancher had just said about
trapping him. And he never stirred until the two riders had moved along.

When they had ridden beyond the next rise Benny Badger made a rush for
his hole. And there he stayed all the rest of that day.

He didn't quite know what to do. And a little later he felt more
uncomfortable than ever when the rancher began to build his new fence
around the prairie dog village, without using a single one of the
post-holes that Benny had dug for him.

All Benny's neighbors noticed what was happening. And they no longer
told Benny what a clever fellow he was. On the contrary, they laughed
slyly, and said things to one another whenever Benny Badger came near
them.

When he growled at them they always pretended to be surprised to see
him, and asked him if he had "dug any post-holes lately."

But Benny Badger never answered that question. Every time he heard it he
felt like moving away from the neighborhood. And when he came home early
one morning and found a _trap_ right in his doorway he made up his mind
then and there that matters had gone far enough.

He turned away. And without stopping to tell anybody what he intended to
do, or where he was going--without even saying good-by--he stole away
across the plains to hunt for a new home.

XXI

THE NEW HOME

When Benny Badger went wandering off to find a safer and pleasanter
neighborhood in which to make a new home for himself, he had no idea at
all as to where he should go. He only knew that he wanted to get a good,
long distance away from the place where he had been living.

Wherever he decided to settle, it must be some spot where the ungrateful
rancher wouldn't be likely to find him, and set a trap in his doorway
again.

On and on Benny travelled, until at last he met a spry young chap--one
of the deer mouse family--who stopped still and stared at Benny as if
he would like to speak to him, but didn't quite dare to.

"Hullo!" said Benny Badger. "Do you live around here?"

The deer mouse answered politely with a nod, as if he would like to
talk, if he weren't too shy.

"Do you find this an agreeable neighborhood?" Benny Badger inquired.

"Very!" the deer mouse replied in a thin, piping voice.

"Is there plenty of good water nearby?" Benny asked him.

"Yes, indeed!"