The Tale of Benny Badger Read online

  Mrs. Coyote paused and glared at Benny Badger. "You've spoiled my game,"she said. "You went and showed yourself. And when they saw you, thePrairie Dogs hid again."

  Benny Badger looked at Mrs. Coyote pleasantly enough.

  "Why don't you dig for them?" he asked.

  But Mrs. Coyote didn't appear to care for that idea in the least. Shethreatened Benny Badger with dreadful things, if he didn't leave atonce. And then she hurried on to find her husband.

  Benny Badger was glad to see her go. He was not at all afraid either ofMr. or Mrs. Coyote--nor of both of them together. And though he hadspoiled their game, he hardly thought that they would be able to spoilhis.

  XVII

  THE PRAIRIE DOG VILLAGE

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

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

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

  At the sound of the alarm--a high-pitched chatter--every prairie dogwho 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 tumblingthrough their doorways. They couldn't have done anything that would havesuited him better. Had there been a single one among the prairie dogsthat wasn't a dunce he would have run _away_ from his hole, outside thevillage, to hide somewhere until Benny Badger left the place.

  But the prairie dogs were too stupid to think of such a trick. They knewno better than to rush into their houses--which was exactly what BennyBadger wanted them to do.

  And if anything happened now and then to make matters speciallyunpleasant for the prairie dogs, it never troubled Benny Badger. Heseemed to grow fatter and happier than ever as time passed.

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

  A young deer mouse claimed to have overheard a rancher talking--therancher that lived about a mile from Benny Badger's home. And the deermouse reported that the man was going to get rid of the whole prairiedog family. "He says they eat too much grass, and dig too many holes,"the deer mouse declared.

  Though the news upset Benny, and quite took away his appetite, for a fewmoments, he began to cast about for a way to prevent such a sad affair.If you could have seen him with a worried look on his face, anxiouslyasking everybody he met to give him advice, you would have thought thathe felt very, very sorry for the prairie dogs.

  But such was not the case at all. Benny Badger was feeling sorry forhimself; for he knew that if the rancher drove the villagers away hewould miss them terribly. Benny had almost given up hope of finding away to put an end to the rancher's plan when the deer mouse told himanother bit of news.

  "He's going to build a new fence out this way--the rancher is!" the deermouse informed Benny. "It's coming this side of the Prairie Dog village.And that's why the rancher wants to get rid of the Prairie Dogs."

  "How do you know this?" Benny Badger asked his small friend. "Have youbeen eavesdropping again?"

  The deer mouse blushed. And since he made no reply, Benny Badger had tobelieve him.

  Still, Benny could see no way out of his difficulty. And he went home atday-break feeling quite out of sorts.

  But when he awoke, right in the middle of the day, a happy thoughtpopped into his head.

  He was so excited by it that he couldn't go to sleep again, though thesun was shining brightly.

  XVIII

  SAVING THE DAY

  Benny Badger kept his bright idea to himself. But his neighbors knewthat he must have thought of something, because he seemed sogood-natured all at once.

  "He has a secret," they told one another. But they couldn't find outwhat it was. Though they asked Benny Badger point blank what he intendedto do, he refused to tell them. He only smiled, and looked very wise.And indeed he felt just as wise as he looked.

  For a time a good many of his friends spied upon him. Hidden behindwhatever was handy, they watched Benny Badger.

  But they soon grew tired of that. So far as they could see, he didnothing but dig holes. And certainly that was nothing new for him. Sohis friends went about their own affairs, leaving Benny to dig as manyholes as he pleased.

  Now, it pleased him to dig more holes, and bigger holes, than he hadever dug before. And he dug them all on the _other_ side of the prairiedog village--on the side toward the rancher's home.

  Benny seemed to have no fixed plan as to _how_ he should dig theholes--whether in a straight row, or in a circle, or any other way. Hisone idea seemed to be to dig a plenty--to dig as many as anybody couldpossibly want for any purpose whatsoever.

  Now and then some passer-by would stop and look at Benny for a fewminutes, and snicker.

  "Are you looking for buried gold?" Mr. Coyote asked him.

  "What's the matter--have you been digging so fast that you can't stop?"Mr. Fox inquired.

  Even the prairie dogs--timid as they were--ventured to jeer at BennyBadger and demanded whether he had gone crazy. But Benny Badger neverpaused to answer anybody. He smiled a good deal, however, as if he knewsomething that nobody else suspected.

  Every morning at dawn he went home to rest. And every evening at sunsethe returned to the same place, just beyond the prairie dog village, totake up his work where he had left it.

  The only remark Benny would make when anyone insisted on talking withhim was that he couldn't waste his time gossiping, because _he had tosave the day_.

  That seemed a strange statement. No one knew exactly what Benny Badgermeant by it. To be sure, he saved each day for sleeping--for he workedonly at night. But it was just as true that he saved each night forworking. So it was only natural that people should be puzzled.

  To everybody's surprise, Benny stopped his work as suddenly as he hadbegun it. Exactly at midnight he paused, brushed the dirt off himself,and slipped into his coat, remarking that he thought he "had saved theday."

  With a hungry look on his face he turned toward the prairie dog village.And there was a great scurrying then.

  "You ought to thank me!" Benny Badger called to the prairie dogs as theydived into their holes. "I've saved the day! The rancher certainly won'ttry to get rid of you now."

  XIX

  PLEASANT PRAISE

  Not one of the prairie dogs knew what Benny Badger meant when he criedthat 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 imaginehow Benny Badger might be able to help them. Indeed, they rather likedthe rancher better than Benny, anyhow. And as for thanking Benny, theonly time they would ever feel like thanking him would be when he badethem good-by and left the neighborhood, to return no more.

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

  "They ought to send a committee to my house to thank me for what I'vedone 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 beafter me, to tell me what _he_ thinks of me."

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

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

  "When he finds those holes already made, he won't be so foolish as todig others," Benny explained.

  "But you've gone and dug them on the wrong side of the Prairie Dogvillage!" somebody objected.

  "Of course I have!" Benny retorted. "I did that on purpose. Don't youunderstand that when the rancher finds the holes he'll use them wherethey are? You don't suppose--do y
ou?--that he'll be so silly as to movethe holes?"

  The objector--a somewhat youthful coyote--slunk away with a foolishsimper. He saw that Benny Badger knew what he was talking about.

  "Since the Prairie Dogs' village will lie _outside_ the new fence, therancher won't pay any more attention to it," Benny Badger said stoutly."From this time on, the Prairie Dogs are quite safe--so far as therancher is concerned. . . . And that's how I have saved the day."

  Benny Badger's secret was out at last. And as fast as people learned itthey stopped to tell him that they had known all the time that he had afine plan of some sort, and that if there was anything they could do tohelp him they would be greatly obliged if he would "count on them."

  Of course the work was all done. But perhaps Benny's neighbors hadn'tstopped to think of that. Anyhow he had never known them to be sopleasant before. And he quite enjoyed their praise; for everyone toldhim that nobody had ever suspected that he was so clever.

  It was lucky that Benny took the time when he did to listen to hisneighbors' pleasant speeches. Unfortunately they soon came to a suddenend.

  XX

  THE RANCHER IS ANGRY

  Benny Badger lay motionless, with his long hair parted along the middleof his back and flowing off his sides in such a fashion that a carelesspasser-by would not have noticed that it was anything more than drygrass.

  For several days Benny had been watching for the rancher. And now, atlast, 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 themurmur of their voices he made ready to hear many pleasant remarks abouthimself. He was only waiting until the riders should discover the holeshe had dug near the prairie dog village.

  Nearer and nearer came the men. And Benny Badger crouched lower andlower.

  They had passed him, and ridden a bit nearer the village, when therancher suddenly pulled his horse to a stand.

  "Ah!" Benny Badger exclaimed under his breath. "He sees the newpost-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 firsttime. The moment he saw them he gave a great roar.

  "A badger!" he shouted. "We'll have to trap him. I can't have himtearing my ranch up like this. These holes are the finest things in theworld to break a critter's leg in."

  Benny Badger could scarcely believe what his own ears told him. Hethought there must be a mistake somewhere. And when the rancher declaredthat the badger that dug those holes was worse than a whole village ofprairie dogs, Benny was tempted, for one wild moment, to dash up to themen and tell them exactly what he thought.

  But he remembered, in time, what the rancher had just said abouttrapping 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 forhis 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 moreuncomfortable than ever when the rancher began to build his new fencearound the prairie dog village, without using a single one of thepost-holes that Benny had dug for him.

  All Benny's neighbors noticed what was happening. And they no longertold Benny what a clever fellow he was. On the contrary, they laughedslyly, and said things to one another whenever Benny Badger came nearthem.

  When he growled at them they always pretended to be surprised to seehim, and asked him if he had "dug any post-holes lately."

  But Benny Badger never answered that question. Every time he heard it hefelt like moving away from the neighborhood. And when he came home earlyone morning and found a _trap_ right in his doorway he made up his mindthen and there that matters had gone far enough.

  He turned away. And without stopping to tell anybody what he intended todo, or where he was going--without even saying good-by--he stole awayacross the plains to hunt for a new home.

  XXI

  THE NEW HOME

  When Benny Badger went wandering off to find a safer and pleasanterneighborhood in which to make a new home for himself, he had no idea atall as to where he should go. He only knew that he wanted to get a good,long distance away from the place where he had been living.

  Wherever he decided to settle, it must be some spot where the ungratefulrancher wouldn't be likely to find him, and set a trap in his doorwayagain.

  On and on Benny travelled, until at last he met a spry young chap--oneof the deer mouse family--who stopped still and stared at Benny as ifhe would like to speak to him, but didn't quite dare to.

  "Hullo!" said Benny Badger. "Do you live around here?"

  The deer mouse answered politely with a nod, as if he would like totalk, if he weren't too shy.

  "Do you find this an agreeable neighborhood?" Benny Badger inquired.

  "Very!" the deer mouse replied in a thin, piping voice.

  "Is there plenty of good water nearby?" Benny asked him.

  "Yes, indeed!" the deer mouse exclaimed. "There's a water-hole rightover there!" And he pointed over his shoulder, without taking his eyesoff Benny Badger. He knew it was safer to keep a close watch ofstrangers.

  Benny sat down. He had journeyed a long way and he was tired.

  "I'll go and have a drink as soon as I'm rested," he said. "I'm gladthere's good water here. This seems to be a pleasant place. . . . Arethere any good Gophers and Prairie Dogs in the neighborhood?"

  "Oh, yes!" the deer mouse answered. "But you needn't worry about them.They won't harm you if you mind your own affairs. I've lived here a longtime; and they haven't touched me."

  "What about Owls?" Benny Badger wanted to know.

  The deer mouse looked solemn all at once.

  "There are a few," he admitted. "If you're thinking of settling here,you'll have to watch sharp for them. I've had several narrow escapes."

  Benny Badger smiled.

  "I'd like to see the Owl that could hurt me!" he cried. "And as forGophers and Prairie Dogs, _I like them_. . . . This is the very placeI've been looking for. And as soon as I have rested a little longer andhad a drink of that good water I'm going to dig myself a den right whereI'm sitting now."

  The deer mouse pricked up his long ears at that. To the best of hisbelief, no badger had ever lived in the neighborhood before. And if thestranger was going to dig a hole, he intended to watch him while heworked.

  "If you feel rested enough now, I'll show you the way to thewater-hole," the deer mouse said presently. He was impatient for the funto begin.

  Benny Badger stood up.

  "Lead on!" he commanded. "I'll follow." And then he yawned--for it wasalready long past his usual bedtime.

  The deer mouse trembled slightly as he looked into Benny's great mouth.And he took care to keep well ahead of the stranger all the way to thewater-hole, and back again, too. But he soon forgot his fear when BennyBadger began to dig the new den. The dirt flew in such showers as thedeer mouse had never seen in all his life--except during a cyclone.

  Benny had begun to dig--as he said he should--in the exact spot where hehad sat and rested. But for one reason or another he soon changed hismind, and started to dig a different hole a short distance from thefirst one.

  Soon he moved again. And after he had begun no less than five holes,only to leave each one unfinished, the deer mouse interrupted him with asharp cry.

  "Stop! Stop!" he begged Benny. "Please don't do that!"

  Benny Badger paused and stared at him in amazement.

  "What is it?" he asked. "What's the matter?"

  The deer mouse was all a-flutter.

  "Goodness me!" he exclaimed. "You'll have the whole neighborhood dug upif you're not careful!"

  XXII

  A BREAKFAST INVITATION

  For a moment or two Benny Badger looked at the deer mouse without sayinga word. He told himself that here was a country person who couldn't everhave travelled much, or he would have known better than to make such aremark. . . . Spoil the whole neighborhood indeed
! . . . Benny's liptwisted up in something like a sneer.

  "Don't you worry!" he snorted. "I don't believe you ever saw afirst-class digger before. I'm not going to spoil the neighborhood. I'm_improving_ it. I'm making a fine house here--probably the finest thereis for miles around."

  The deer mouse appeared ashamed. Of course he didn't like to seemstupid.

  "But why do you dig in so many places?" he faltered.

  "That's my way," Benny Badger told him. "As soon as I get one den wellstarted I think I'd rather live somewhere else. But I don't mindbeginning again because there's no better exercise than digging."

  "No doubt!" the deer mouse agreed. "But I'm sure it would be much tooviolent for me."

  He said no more, but looked on with a puzzled air until at last BennyBadger had actually dug in one place long enough to make a deep den.

  When it was quite finished Benny Badger brushed the dirt off himself andturned to Mr. Deer Mouse.

  "Come inside and see if my new house isn't the finest one you eversaw!" he said.

  For some reason Mr. Deer Mouse did not seem eager to enter. To be sure,he thanked Benny for the invitation, but he backed away a few steps andsaid that he thought he'd better not look at the new house that morning."I--I haven't the time to spare," he mumbled.