“But where can we stay to-night?” Blinkie wanted to know.
“Oh, we shall do very well!” replied Mrs. Woodchuck. “This is the warm summer time, and we really don’t need an underground house now. We can stay in a hollow log in the woods.”
“What is the woods?” asked Winkie. Though the woodland trees grew not far from the burrow house, Winkie had never been in the forest.
“Come with your mother and me and we’ll show you,” her father answered. “Follow me!”
[By pulling and hauling they managed to get Mrs. Woodchuck up and out.]
Though it was dark, the other woodchucks could see well enough to follow Mr. Woodchuck. He led them across the field where Mr. Tottle had been blasting that day. But now the farmer was asleep in bed, and his dog was asleep also. There was no one to see the escape of the woodchucks.
Through the clover field they went, stopping long enough to eat as much as they wanted, for they were hungry. Then Mr. Woodchuck ducked under a fence, the others followed, and soon they found themselves in a darker, silent place, where the moon did not shine and where the stars did not glitter.