One day when he was sunning himself the sound of voices s.n.a.t.c.hed him out of his drowsiness. And he kept quite still, to see what he could see, and hear what he could hear.
Soon three coyotes came sneaking through the gra.s.s, talking in hushed voices--a thing they seldom did. Benny could hardly believe his own ears, because he had supposed that if the coyote family spoke at all, they always howled.
But if the quietness of the coyotes surprised Benny, what they said astonished him a great deal more. For Benny Badger learned that the three cronies were headed for a prairie dog village just beyond the next rise.
That was most amazing news. Benny Badger hadn"t known that there was a prairie dog village so near his den. And for a moment he was tempted to call to the coyotes and ask them if what they said was really true or if they were only fooling.
But he didn"t think the three prowlers had seen him. So there seemed to be no reason for their saying what wasn"t so.
Well, the moment they disappeared, Benny Badger jumped up and hurried into his den. He would have followed the coyotes, but he decided it would be better to wait. The prairie dogs would be too wary, with those coyotes in their village.
But later, after the coyotes had left--ah! then he would pay a visit to the village himself.
Towards evening Benny Badger crept out of his den and followed the trail of the three coyotes. And sure enough! when he reached the top of the rise he saw the mounds of the prairie dogs spread out before him.
Though he saw no prairie dogs, he noticed an owl sitting upon a heap of earth that had been tossed out around a hole.
Benny Badger strolled up to the owl.
"It"s a fine evening!" said Benny.
The owl merely stared at him, round-eyed, and made no reply.
"I say, it"s a fine evening!" Benny repeated in a louder tone.
"Very well!" the owl replied. "You may say it as often as you wish. I"m sure I have no objection. . . . But you don"t need to come any nearer,"
he added.
Benny Badger stopped and squatted in the gra.s.s. He was glad to rest, for he was--as has been said--no great traveller.
"Is anybody at home?" he asked presently.
"Somebody is," said the owl.
"Then I"ll dig right in as soon as I get my breath," said Benny Badger, glancing at the hole.
"Do you want to see somebody?" the owl asked. "For if you do, there"s no need of your doing any digging here."
"Why not?" Benny inquired.
"I"m somebody," the owl informed him. "I live here; and I"ll be disgusted if you go to tearing my house to pieces."
XV
BENNY AND THE OWL
Benny Badger smiled at the owl. He thought he must be fooling.
"You"re a joker, aren"t you?" said Benny. "But I never should have thought it--you look so glum."
The owl seemed somewhat displeased.
"I"ve never made a joke yet," he declared, "though I"ve no doubt I could, if I should ever want to."
Benny Badger glanced from the owl to the hole, and then back again at the strange fellow.
"You don"t mean to say you live here, in this hole?" Benny exclaimed.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Benny Seized Mr. Coyote"s Paw.]
"Certainly; I do," the owl replied sharply.
Benny Badger couldn"t understand how that could be.
"But this is a prairie dog house," he protested. . . . "Where"s the chap that built it? He must be around here somewhere."
"I don"t know where he is, and I don"t care where he is," the owl answered. "I drove him out of this house because I wanted to live here myself. And I didn"t trouble myself to see where he went."
Benny Badger could hardly believe what the owl told him. But he noticed that the fellow had a sharp beak, and sharp claws too.
"I should think you played a joke on the prairie dog," he remarked at last.
"Should you?" said the owl. "If it _was_ a joke, it wasn"t nearly as big a one as I"ll play on anybody that tries to drive _me_ away from here. . . . I drove a snake away yesterday," he added. And he looked very thoughtfully at Benny Badger, as if he were picking out a soft place in which to sink his cruel beak.
"You needn"t be so touchy," said Benny. "I"m not going to disturb you.
I"m sure I shouldn"t care to live in your house."
The owl was a peppery fellow. He grew angry at once.
"Why not?" he demanded. "What"s the matter with my house?"
"I"ll tell you," Benny replied. "It"s a second-hand one. And that"s bad enough. But it would be still worse if I took it away from you, because then it would be third-hand."
The owl looked daggers at him.
"You"ve insulted me!" he cried loudly, swelling himself up--or so it seemed.
"Have I?" Benny Badger inquired. "Don"t mention it! I"m sure you"re quite welcome." To tell the truth, he had not the least idea what the owl meant.
Naturally, Benny"s words only made the owl angrier than ever. And he became actually rude.
"If I were you," he spluttered, "until I learned better manners I would dig a hole somewhere, crawl inside it, and pull it in after me."
Now, that was a new idea--for Benny Badger. And he liked it.