nd
started for the clover patch. Little did he know that his mother had
already stolen out the same way, to warn him and his father.

When unwelcome callers come, a back door is sometimes a convenient
thing to have about a house.

XVIII

A CROWDED HOUSE

Old dog Spot never once guessed that there was a back door to the
Woodchuck family's home in the pasture. He had chased Mrs. Woodchuck
into her house. He had likewise hunted her son Billy into the same front
door through which his mother had scrambled only a short time before.

"There must be more of these fat folks about the pasture," Spot thought.
"I'll range around a bit and see if I can't surprise another."

So he began running about the pasture in big circles. And he was lucky
enough, before long, to come upon Mr. Woodchuck himself, who had dined
so heartily on clover heads that he had decided to go to his chamber and
take a nap.

Spot was unlucky enough to lose him. Mr. Woodchuck had been feeling
quite sleepy. But when he suddenly found himself pursued by a dog he was
wide awake in an instant and running like a youngster.

He reached his home just in time.

"Well, that makes the third one that's inside the house," Spot muttered,
shortly afterward, as he paused to get his breath.

Little did he know how mistaken he was. There wasn't even one of the
Woodchuck family at home; for Mr. Woodchuck had at once hurried out the
back way, because he wanted to find his wife and his son and tell them
to keep away from old dog Spot.

Soon Spot took a few more turns around the pasture. And this time he ran
across Mrs. Woodchuck again.

He had no sooner run her to earth once more than he found Billy for the
second time.

"This is a twin brother of the fellow I chased home once before," Spot
panted, little dreaming that Billy Woodchuck had come back into the
daylight.

"This twin is just as spry as the other one was," Spot gasped as he
reached for Billy right at his door--and missed him.

After that the old dog chased Mr. Woodchuck, then his wife, and next
their son Billy Woodchuck. And he didn't succeed in catching any one of
the three. Each of them beat him in the race to the Woodchuck family's
front door.

Old Spot began to feel quite upset.

"I don't see what the matter with me to-day," he puzzled. "I hope I'm
not getting so old that I'm _weeble_." (By that he meant _weak_ and
_feeble_.)

"This last one makes eight that I've followed all the wa