Mr. Woodchuck went softly to the back-door of the burrow. He crept up the little incline, or hill, that led to out-of-doors, and he was just poking his nose out when, all at once, there sounded a loud:
Bang!
And that was not the worst! As the loud noise sounded, louder than any thunder the ground-hogs had ever heard, Mr. Woodchuck came slipping, sliding, and half falling back into the burrow.
“Oh, Nib! what has happened?” cried Mrs. Woodchuck. “Nib” was a pet name for her husband. “Are you shot?” she asked. “I’m sure I heard a gun!”
“It was the biggest gun I ever heard shot off, if that’s what it was!” said Mr. Woodchuck. “It fairly stunned me! Why, I fell right over backward, and a lot of little stones and dirt flew in my face!”
“Did the farmer see you and shoot at you?” asked Winkie.
“No. He couldn’t see me, for I hadn’t yet poked my nose outside,” answered the father. “I don’t understand what happened!”
Blunk, just like a boy, had run to the back-door to be near the scene of excitement. Now he came running back, all out of breath.
“Oh, you ought to see!” he cried. “Our back-door hole is closed up! It’s full of dirt and stones, and nobody can get out that way!”