e had noticed Mr. Fox in an
entirely different place.

"That's odd!" Benny Badger said to himself. "How can he be in three
places at once?" And since he could not answer that question, he decided
to look in none of those three directions, but to try a fourth, because
he felt sure that none of the three could be the right one. And besides,
if Mr. Fox had really been where he was said to have been seen, he was
such a roving fellow that he would have moved on.

Well, where he looked next, Benny found Mr. Fox.

"What luck?" Benny asked that wily gentleman once more.

Mr. Fox replied somewhat stiffly that he had nothing to say.

"What's that on your mouth?" Benny Badger demanded suddenly.

Mr. Fox hastily rubbed his paw across his mouth.

"It can't be egg," he blurted.

"_Egg!_" Benny Badger shouted. "I hadn't mentioned _egg_! But now that
_you_ mention _egg_, perhaps that's it."

Mr. Fox looked most ill at ease. But he made no reply.

"What's that clinging to your shoulder?" asked Benny Badger abruptly.

"It can't be a feather," said Mr. Fox, nervously brushing off his
shoulder as he spoke.

"A feather!" Benny Badger exclaimed. "I've said nothing about a
_feather_! But now that you speak of it, Mr. Fox, perhaps that's it."

Mr. Fox looked very, very uncomfortable. And he murmured something about
"having to be on his way."

"Wait a moment!" said Benny, as Mr. Fox turned aside. "What's that on
the back of your neck?"

Mr. Fox tried in vain to look at the back of his own neck.

"It can't be----" he began.

But before he could finish, Benny Badger interrupted him.

"Yes, it is!" he cried. "It's my teeth!"

And so saying, he seized Mr. Fox on the back of his neck and began to
drag him over the grass.

It became clear, at once, that Mr. Fox did not enjoy the sport.

"Don't do that, friend!" he begged. "What are you trying to do, anyhow?"

"I'm trying to rub the egg off your mouth," Benny Badger explained.

"Please don't trouble yourself," said Mr. Fox.

Then Benny began to shake him.

"Don't do that, friend!" said Mr. Fox again. "What are you trying to
do?"

"I'm only trying to shake the feather off you," Benny told him.

"Don't trouble yourself," said Mr. Fox. "If you'll take those teeth off
my neck, that's all I'll ask of you."

"Not yet!" Benny Badger replied grimly. "You're a robber. And I'm going
to teach you a lesson. . . . You _will_ rob birds' nests, will you?"

To his great surprise, M