Benny Badger stood up.
"Lead on!" he commanded. "I'll follow." And then he yawned—for it was already 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 the water-hole, and back again, too. But he soon forgot his fear when Benny Badger began to dig the new den. The dirt flew in such showers as the deer 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 he had sat and rested. But for one reason or another he soon changed his mind, and started to dig a different hole a short distance from the first 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 a sharp 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 up if you're not careful!"