Meanwhile the Woodchuck family were working hard, digging a new home for themselves at the other end of the pasture. They had all met at last on the edge of the clover patch. And Mr. Woodchuck had declared that they must move at once, because it wasn't safe to live in their old house any longer. He said that old dog Spot would be sure to keep an eye on it for some time.
They soon found a place that suited them all very well.
"We'll live here," said Mr. Woodchuck to his wife and their son Billy. "You two can take turns digging while I sit up and watch for old dog Spot. After all the running I did to-day it wouldn't be safe for me to do any digging."
That was Mr. Woodchuck's plan. And they followed it.
XIX
OFF FOR THE CIRCUS
Great circus posters had covered one side of Farmer Green's barn for weeks. Ever since some men came and pasted them on the barn Johnnie Green had studied them carefully. He had practiced bareback riding on his pony, Twinkleheels. He had tried a high dive into the mill pond from the top of the dam. And much to old dog Spot's disgust Johnnie had tried to make him jump through a hoop covered with paper.
Spot had refused flatly to do anything of the kind. If he had known that his young master had half a notion to teach him to jump through a hoop of fire Spot would have run away—at least until circus time had come and gone.
"What puts all these queer ideas into Johnnie's head?" the old dog asked his friend Ebenezer, the horse, one day.
"Don't you know?" said Ebenezer. "It's those circus pictures. Johnnie won't think of anything else until the twenty-third of August."