“Just as I feared!” he sadly said. “This door is closed too! We are prisoners here in our burrow!”
“You don’t mean to tell me the front-door hole is closed up, like the back door!” cried his wife.
“Yes, that is what happened,” answered her husband. “The farmer has shot both our doors shut! We can’t get out!”
This last part was true enough, but not the first. Farmer Tottle had not exactly shot shut the two door holes of the Woodchucks’ underground house. He had blasted some rocks in his field, using powder to blow up the big stones. It was the shock of the blastings that had closed the doors of the burrow. Dirt and rocks had been shaken into the passages until they were almost completely filled, and none of the children, to say nothing of big Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck, could squeeze their way past.
“What are we going to do?” cried Mrs. Woodchuck.
“Shall we have to stay here forever?” asked Blinkie.
“We can’t stay here forever!” exclaimed Blunk. “There isn’t anything to eat down here, and we’ll starve!”
“Oh! Don’t talk that way!” faintly screamed Blinkie.
“Maybe we can find a way out,” suggested Winkie, who always looked on the bright side.