For a moment or two Benny Badger looked at the deer mouse without saying a word. He told himself that here was a country person who couldn\'t ever have travelled much, or he would have known better than to make such a remark.... Spoil the whole neighborhood indeed!... Benny\'s lip twisted up in something like a sneer.

"Don\'t you worry!" he snorted. "I don\'t believe you ever saw a first-class digger before. I\'m not going to spoil the neighborhood. I\'m improving it. I\'m making a fine house here—prob[106]ably the finest there is for miles around."

The deer mouse appeared ashamed. Of course he didn\'t like to seem stupid.

"But why do you dig in so many places?" he faltered.

"That\'s my way," Benny Badger told him. "As soon as I get one den well started I think I\'d rather live somewhere else. But I don\'t mind beginning again because there\'s no better exercise than digging."

"No doubt!" the deer mouse agreed. "But I\'m sure it would be much too violent for me."

He said no more, but looked on with a puzzled air until at last Benny Badger had actually dug in one place long enough to make a deep den.

When it was quite finished Benny Badger brushed the dirt off himself and turned to Mr. Deer Mouse.

"Come inside and see if my new house[107] isn\'t the finest one you ever saw!" he said.

For some reason Mr. Deer Mouse did not seem eager to enter. ............