coyotes. And sure enough! when he reached the top of the
rise he saw the mounds of the prairie dogs spread out before him.

Though he saw no prairie dogs, he noticed an owl sitting upon a heap of
earth that had been tossed out around a hole.

Benny Badger strolled up to the owl.

"It's a fine evening!" said Benny.

The owl merely stared at him, round-eyed, and made no reply.

"I say, it's a fine evening!" Benny repeated in a louder tone.

"Very well!" the owl replied. "You may say it as often as you wish. I'm
sure I have no objection. . . . But you don't need to come any nearer,"
he added.

Benny Badger stopped and squatted in the grass. He was glad to rest, for
he was--as has been said--no great traveller.

"Is anybody at home?" he asked presently.

"Somebody is," said the owl.

"Then I'll dig right in as soon as I get my breath," said Benny Badger,
glancing at the hole.

"Do you want to see somebody?" the owl asked. "For if you do, there's no
need of your doing any digging here."

"Why not?" Benny inquired.

"I'm somebody," the owl informed him. "I live here; and I'll be
disgusted if you go to tearing my house to pieces."

XV

BENNY AND THE OWL

Benny Badger smiled at the owl. He thought he must be fooling.

"You're a joker, aren't you?" said Benny. "But I never should have
thought it--you look so glum."

The owl seemed somewhat displeased.

"I've never made a joke yet," he declared, "though I've no doubt I
could, if I should ever want to."

Benny Badger glanced from the owl to the hole, and then back again at
the strange fellow.

"You don't mean to say you live here, in this hole?" Benny exclaimed.

[Illustration: Benny Seized Mr. Coyote's Paw.]

"Certainly; I do," the owl replied sharply.

Benny Badger couldn't understand how that could be.

"But this is a prairie dog house," he protested. . . . "Where's the
chap that built it? He must be around here somewhere."

"I don't know where he is, and I don't care where he is," the owl
answered. "I drove him out of this house because I wanted to live here
myself. And I didn't trouble myself to see where he went."

Benny Badger could hardly believe what the owl told him. But he noticed
that the fellow had a sharp beak, and sharp claws too.

"I should think you played a joke on the prairie dog," he remarked at
last.

"Should you?" said the owl. "If it _was_ a joke, it wasn't nearly as
big a one as I'll play on anybody that tries t