Having once found his way to the prairie dog village, Benny Badger often visited it.

And it is said, by those who know, that while he was there he always had a much pleasanter time than the villagers themselves.

So little did the prairie dogs enjoy Benny Badger\'s society that whenever one of them spied Benny nearing the settlement he never failed to jerk his tail up and down and call out the news.

At the sound of the alarm—a high-pitched chatter—every prairie dog who[82] wasn\'t at home scurried for his hole as fast as he could scamper.

Benny Badger always had to smile when he saw the villagers tumbling through their doorways. They couldn\'t have done anything that would have suited him better. Had there been a single one among the prairie dogs that wasn\'t a dunce he would have run away from his hole, outside the village, to hide somewhere until Benny Badger left the place.

But the prairie dogs were too stupid to think of such a trick. They knew no better than to rush into their houses—which was exactly what Benny Badger wanted them to do.

And if anything happened now and then to make matters specially unpleasant for the prairie dogs, it never troubled Benny Badger. He seemed to grow fatter and happier than ever as time passed.[83]

But at last he heard a bit of news one day that made him feel quite glum.

A young deer mouse claimed to have overheard a rancher talking—the rancher that lived about a mile from Benny Badger\'s home. And the deer mouse reported that the man was going to g............