at night. But it was just as true that he saved each night for
working. So it was only natural that people should be puzzled.

To everybody's surprise, Benny stopped his work as suddenly as he had
begun it. Exactly at midnight he paused, brushed the dirt off himself,
and slipped into his coat, remarking that he thought he "had saved the
day."

With a hungry look on his face he turned toward the prairie dog village.
And there was a great scurrying then.

"You ought to thank me!" Benny Badger called to the prairie dogs as they
dived into their holes. "I've saved the day! The rancher certainly won't
try to get rid of you now."

XIX

PLEASANT PRAISE

Not one of the prairie dogs knew what Benny Badger meant when he cried
that he "had saved the day."

Of course, they had heard that the rancher did not like their village,
and that he wanted to get rid of it--and them. But they couldn't imagine
how Benny Badger might be able to help them. Indeed, they rather liked
the rancher better than Benny, anyhow. And as for thanking Benny, the
only time they would ever feel like thanking him would be when he bade
them good-by and left the neighborhood, to return no more.

But Benny Badger was quite unaware of all that. He complained that the
prairie dogs weren't treating him well.

"They ought to send a committee to my house to thank me for what I've
done for them," he grumbled. "No one around here seems to understand me.
But the rancher certainly will. You'll see before long that he'll be
after me, to tell me what _he_ thinks of me."

For several days afterward Benny lost a good deal of sleep by staying
outside his house while watching for the rancher to appear. And little
by little, from things he said now and then, his neighbors learned his
secret.

They discovered that Benny Badger had been digging holes for the posts
of the new fence that the rancher was going to build!

"When he finds those holes already made, he won't be so foolish as to
dig others," Benny explained.

"But you've gone and dug them on the wrong side of the Prairie Dog
village!" somebody objected.

"Of course I have!" Benny retorted. "I did that on purpose. Don't you
understand that when the rancher finds the holes he'll use them where
they are? You don't suppose--do you?--that he'll be so silly as to move
the holes?"

The objector--a somewhat youthful coyote--slunk away with a foolish
simper. He saw that Benny Badger knew what he was talk