"My goodness!" Billy Woodchuck gasped. "He's left our house. And if I don't look out he'll catch me."
At almost the same instant old Spot paused and sniffed the air.
"Ha!" he cried. "I smell a Woodchuck. And if I'm not mistaken it's a different Woodchuck from the one I chased a little while ago."
Billy Woodchuck and Spot began to run at the same time. Billy headed for home; and Spot headed for him.
Again old dog Spot was just a bit too late. Billy Woodchuck darted into the hole in the hillside not a second too soon. He could hear Spot panting close behind him.
"Such luck!" Spot growled. "There's another that's got away from me. There's the second one that I've run into that hole. I suppose they're chuckling inside their house and making all manner of fun of me."
The old dog was mistaken. Billy Woodchuck was not chuckling. He found nobody at home. It was plain that his parents were still abroad.
"They may be coming from the clover patch now," he groaned. [And] if they are, they're sure to stumble upon that terrible creature at the door. I must warn them before it's too late."
While Spot was still snorting and snuffling around the Woodchuck family's front door, Billy Woodchuck crept out of the back door and started for the clover patch. Little did he know that his mother had already stolen out the same way, to warn him and his father.
When unwelcome callers come, a back door is sometimes a convenient thing to have about a house.