Not one of the prairie dogs knew what Benny Badger meant when he cried that he "had saved the day."

Of course, they had heard that the rancher did not like their village, and that he wanted to get rid of it—and them. But they couldn\'t imagine how Benny Badger might be able to help them. Indeed, they rather liked the rancher better than Benny, anyhow. And as for thanking Benny, the only time they would ever feel like thanking him would be when he bade them good-by and left the neighborhood, to return no more.[91]

But Benny Badger was quite unaware of all that. He complained that the prairie dogs weren\'t treating him well.

"They ought to send a committee to my house to thank me for what I\'ve done for them," he grumbled. "No one around here seems to understand me. But the rancher certainly will. You\'ll see before long that he\'ll be after me, to tell me what he thinks of me."

For several days afterward Benny lost a good deal of sleep by staying outside his house while watching for the rancher to appear. And little by little, from things he said now and then, his neighbors learned his secret.

They discovered that Benny Badger had been digging holes for the posts of the new fence that the rancher was going to build!

"When he finds those holes already[92] made, he won\'t be so foolish as to dig others," Benny explained.

"But you\'ve gone and dug them on the wrong side of the Prairi............