it was a pleasant summer's night. anyone would have supposed that it was just the sort of weather that benny badger might have chosen for digging holes. but he must have thought that he had dug enough holes for the time being. 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[8] 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.

mr. ground squirrel escapes from benny. 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[9] 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[10] 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 benny in what he intended to do, that unfortunate person might have wished that he had taken a bit of friendly advice in time, and made himself scarce.[11]

but, of course, benny badger was not so foolish as to give any such warning, for there was no one there to hear it.