“But I did see him,” Billy insisted. “He pointed a stick at me, and the wind blew and it thundered; and I saw a little white cloud come right out of the end of the stick.”
It was Mrs. Woodchuck’s turn to be upset. And she shook even more than Billy had as she said:
“My goodness, child! That was a gun! And it’s a mercy you weren’t shot. Don’t you stir out of this house again to-day—nor you, nor you, nor you, nor you,” she repeated, pointing to each of her other children.
And though Johnnie Green waited for some time, to see if a black head would not peep out of Mrs. Woodchuck’s front door, nothing of the sort happened until after the sun had set and the cows had all gone home for the night. And by that time Johnnie Green was eating his supper.
XIX
MR. WOODCHUCK MOVES
Mr. Woodchuck was annoyed. And he had good reason to be. The weather was fine and he had planned to spend the whole day sunning himself on a big rock not far from his own dooryard. But he had scarcely found a comfortable seat for himself, after finishing his breakfast, when he caught sight of Farmer Green and his hired man coming across the fields. They were headed straight for the pasture. And Mr. Woodchuck began to complain so loudly about his rest being disturbed, and how mean it was of Farmer Green to come poking about other people’s dooryards, that Mrs. Woodchuck came to her door to see what had happened.
As soon as she saw those men she called her children all home. It was too bad. But until the intruders had gone, their underground house was the best place for the whole Woodchuck family.