. He wandered about as if he had lost a hole somewhere and
couldn't find it. And whenever he spied a hole made by one of his
smaller neighbors he stopped and looked at it closely.

But none of them seemed to be the one he was looking for. At least,
Benny examined a good many holes, and then passed on again, before he
came to one at last that was different from all the rest. If you could
have seen the look of pleasure on Benny's odd face when he caught sight
of this particular hole you would have known at once that his search had
come to an end.

Now, as a matter of fact, Benny Badger had not lost a hole. His strange
behavior did not mean that. It meant that he was searching for a _fresh_
hole, which some ground squirrel had dug so short a time before that
there couldn't be much doubt that the small owner was then living in it.

[Illustration: Mr. Ground Squirrel Escapes from Benny.]

To be sure, Benny might have dug his way to the furthest end of each
hole that he found that night. And doubtless he would have enjoyed such
a pastime. But as for finding a plump ground squirrel at the end of
every tunnel--ah! that would have been a different matter. No such
pleasant sight would have greeted Benny's eyes. And on this evening he
wanted to find some such reward when his digging came to an end.

He knew as well as he knew anything in the world that newly scattered
earth never lay strewn about the doorway of an _old_ hole.

And that was the reason he passed by so many holes with hardly more than
a swift glance.

But when at length he found what he had been looking for--a hole with
fresh brown dirt scattered carelessly around it--Benny Badger showed by
every one of his actions that he didn't intend to move on until he had
burrowed to the very end of it.

A broad smile lighted up his queerly marked face. At least, he opened
his mouth and showed a good many of his teeth. And a bright, eager
glint came into his eyes; whereas they had had a somewhat wistful look
before, as if their owner might have been hungry, and didn't exactly
know where he was going to find a meal.

Then Benny Badger looked all around, to see whether anybody might be
watching him. But there was no one in sight. And if there had been,
Benny Badger would have done no more than tell him that he had better
run along about his business, because it would do him no good to
wait--none at all.

And if the onlooker had happened to come so near as to bother Benn