t there is another
reason why I mustn't visit your new home this morning: I'm hungry. I
haven't had my breakfast yet."

Suddenly Benny Badger remembered that he was hungry himself.

And as he stared at plump Mr. Deer Mouse a certain idea came into his
head. And he looked Mr. Deer up and down before he spoke.

"I haven't had my breakfast either," he said at last. "I'm ready for a
good meal. Come right in and join me!"

But something made Mr. Deer Mouse say, "No, thank you!" _Joining a
badger at breakfast!_ Somehow that had a dangerous sound.

XXIII

MR. DEER MOUSE IS TIMID

Benny Badger began to lose patience with the deer mouse. He was one of
the most timid persons Benny had ever seen. And Benny was on the point
of telling him that he hadn't even the courage of a prairie dog.

But suddenly a new idea flashed into his head. He thought he knew what
was troubling Mr. Deer Mouse.

"When I asked you to join me at breakfast I didn't mean what you thought
I did," Benny announced. "You thought--didn't you?--that I meant to
breakfast on _you_."

Mr. Deer Mouse admitted faintly that he had had some such notion.

"How ridiculous!" Benny Badger cried. "Why, you're so quick that I could
chase you all day--and all night, too--without catching you. You're too
spry for me. So we might as well put such an idea out of our minds."

Benny Badger sighed as he spoke. And he couldn't help noticing, once
more, how very, very plump Mr. Deer Mouse was.

"What I meant by your joining me at a good meal was simply this," he
continued: "If you'll only stay with me, and follow me quietly wherever
I go, there's a good chance that you'll have a bone to gnaw before a
great while."

All that seemed very pleasant to the deer mouse.

"Thank you ever so much!" he murmured. "I'll be glad to accept your
invitation, so long as we aren't going to breakfast inside your new
home."

So they set out. And for a time Mr. Deer Mouse followed Benny Badger all
around the neighborhood.

Though Benny kept a sharp watch on all sides, he couldn't see
anything--or anybody--that promised a meal. And he decided at last that
he would have to make a change of some sort in his plans.

So he sat down and beckoned to Mr. Deer Mouse to move nearer.

"You go ahead of me, and I'll follow you," he said. "You're smaller than
I am, and perhaps you won't frighten the game the way I do."

Mr. Deer Mouse did not seem to care for the suggestion.

"You might