The old grandfather Burrowing-owl, not in very good humor, stepped out, blinking his eyes and asked what was the matter. He said: “It isn’t your custom to come up to my house and make such a racket, though true enough it is that I hear your rackets down below. It cannot be for nothing that you come; therefore, what is your message?”
“My grandfather,” said the Prairie-dog, “in council we have considered how to stop the irrepressible rainers; but all of our efforts and devices are quite futile, so that we are forced to apply to you.”
“Ah, indeed,” said the old Owl, scratching the corner of his eye with his claw. “Go down home, and I will see what I can do tomorrow morning. As you all know very well, I am a priest. I will set aside four days for fasting and meditation and sacred labors. Please await the result.”
The old Prairie-dog humbly bade him farewell and departed for his village below.
Next morning the Burrowing-owl said to his wife: “Put on a large quantity of beans, my old one, and cook them well,—small beans, of the kind that smell not pleasantly.” He then bade her “Good morning,” and left. He went about for a long time, hunting at the roots of bushes. At last he found one of those ill-smelling Beetles, with its head stuck way down in the midst of the roots. He grabbed him up, notwithstanding the poor creature’s remonstrances, and took him home.
When he arrived there, said he: “My friend, it seems to me you are making a great fuss about this thing, but I am not going to hurt you, except in one way,—by the presentation to you of all the food you can eat.”
“Bless me!” said the Tip-beetle, bobbing his head down into the ground and rearing himself into the air. Then he sat down quite relieved and contented.
“Old woman,” said the Burrowing-owl, “lay out a dish of the beans on the floor.” The wife complied. “My friend,” said the Burrowing-owl to the Tip-beetle, “fall to and satisfy yourself.”
The Tip-beetle, with another tip, sat down before the bowl of beans. He ate, and swallowed, and gulped until he had entirely emptied the dish, and began to grow rather full of girth.
“Not yet satisfied?” asked the Owl. “Old woman, lay out another bowl.”