benny badger lay motionless, with his long hair parted along the middle of his back and flowing off his sides in such a fashion that a careless passer-by would not have noticed that it was anything more than dry grass.
for several days benny had been watching for the rancher. and now, at last, he saw him coming, riding on a horse over the rolling plain.
there was another man with the rancher. and as soon as benny caught the murmur of their voices he made ready to hear many pleasant remarks about him[95]self. he was only waiting until the riders should discover the holes he had dug near the prairie dog village.
nearer and nearer came the men. and benny badger crouched lower and lower.
they had passed him, and ridden a bit nearer the village, when the rancher suddenly pulled his horse to a stand.
"ah!" benny badger exclaimed under his breath. "he sees the new post-holes that i've dug for him. and how pleased he'll be!"
it was true that the rancher had just noticed the holes for the first time. the moment he saw them he gave a great roar.
"a badger!" he shouted. "we'll have to trap him. i can't have him tearing my ranch up like this. these holes are the finest things in the world to break a critter's leg in."[96]
benny badger could scarcely believe what his own ears told him. he thought there must be a mistake somewhere. and when the rancher declared that the badger that dug those holes was worse than a whole 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 vil[97]lage, 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[98] where he was going—without even saying good-by—he stole away across the plains to hunt for a new home.
