“What good will that do?” asked Daddy Woodchuck. “You would only be running your nose into danger!”
“Well, but listen!” exclaimed Winkie, and she was so eager that she forgot to speak in a whisper until her mother said:
“Hush! Keep quiet!”
“All right,” hissed Winkie. “But this is what I could do. I could poke my nose out of our back door. The dog would see me, and run to get me. I’d duck down in here, and the dog would begin digging at the back door to make it big enough for him to come down.”
“Yes, that’s just what the dog would do,” sighed Mrs. Woodchuck. “I know dogs, to my sorrow! Once one bit me on the leg!”
“Yes, but wait!” went on Winkie eagerly. “While the dog was digging at our back door we could run out the front.”
“That’s a good idea!” exclaimed Blunk. “But I think I’m the one to do it, and not Winkie.”
“No! No!” exclaimed Mr. Woodchuck. “I see your trick, Winkie, and it is very good of you to think of it and good of Blunk to offer to do it. But it is too dangerous! The dog might dig his way in here through the back door before we had a chance to run out the front. And who knows but what the farmer with his gun may be waiting up above for us! No, we will stay right here safe in our burrow. I don’t believe they will find us here.”
“But what is that strange noise?” asked Blinkie. “There it sounds again!”