XVIII
SAVING THE DAY
Benny Badger kept his bright idea to himself. But his neighbors knew that he must have thought of something, because he seemed so good-natured all at once.
"He has a secret," they told one another. But they couldn"t find out what it was. Though they asked Benny Badger point blank what he intended to 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 behind whatever was handy, they watched Benny Badger.
But they soon grew tired of that. So far as they could see, he did nothing but dig holes. And certainly that was nothing new for him. So his friends went about their own affairs, leaving Benny to dig as many holes as he pleased.
Now, it pleased him to dig more holes, and bigger holes, than he had ever dug before. And he dug them all on the _other_ side of the prairie dog village--on the side toward the rancher"s home.
Benny seemed to have no fixed plan as to _how_ he should dig the holes--whether in a straight row, or in a circle, or any other way. His one idea seemed to be to dig a plenty--to dig as many as anybody could possibly want for any purpose whatsoever.
Now and then some pa.s.ser-by would stop and look at Benny for a few minutes, 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 Benny Badger and demanded whether he had gone crazy. But Benny Badger never paused to answer anybody. He smiled a good deal, however, as if he knew something that n.o.body else suspected.
Every morning at dawn he went home to rest. And every evening at sunset he returned to the same place, just beyond the prairie dog village, to take up his work where he had left it.
The only remark Benny would make when anyone insisted on talking with him was that he couldn"t waste his time gossiping, because _he had to save the day_.
That seemed a strange statement. No one knew exactly what Benny Badger meant by it. To be sure, he saved each day for sleeping--for he worked only at night. But it was just as true that he saved each night for working. So it was only natural that people should be puzzled.
To everybody"s surprise, Benny stopped his work as suddenly as he had begun it. Exactly at midnight he paused, brushed the dirt off himself, and slipped into his coat, remarking that he thought he "had saved the day."
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 they dived into their holes. "I"ve saved the day! The rancher certainly won"t try to get rid of you now."
XIX
PLEASANT PRAISE
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.
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 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 Prairie Dog village!" somebody objected.
"Of course I have!" Benny retorted. "I did that on purpose. Don"t you understand that when the rancher finds the holes he"ll use them where they are? You don"t suppose--do you?--that he"ll be so silly as to move the holes?"
The objector--a somewhat youthful coyote--slunk away with a foolish simper. He saw that Benny Badger knew what he was talking about.
"Since the Prairie Dogs" village will lie _outside_ the new fence, the rancher 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 the rancher 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 it they stopped to tell him that they had known all the time that he had a fine plan of some sort, and that if there was anything they could do to help 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"t stopped to think of that. Anyhow he had never known them to be so pleasant before. And he quite enjoyed their praise; for everyone told him that n.o.body had ever suspected that he was so clever.
It was lucky that Benny took the time when he did to listen to his neighbors" pleasant speeches. Unfortunately they soon came to a sudden end.
XX
THE RANCHER IS ANGRY
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 pa.s.ser-by would not have noticed that it was anything more than dry gra.s.s.
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 himself. 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 pa.s.sed 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!"