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Show piiryTal A RAINY DAY "Well," said Mother IYairie Dog "I am enjoying myself immensely. ' I 1 MA "There Is lots to do today for it is a rainy day, and how I love to work ! "It Is the nice summer time, too. "S o m e people like a good day in which to work, but the prairie dog family loves a rainy day. Then we dig around our holes, and make new holes and homea. 'fV 11 ' ' ' 7 1 11 1 1 Up The Little Prairie th,V0,t earth Dogs Laughed. wlth our feet and push It as we like when it is nice and wet. "Our faces get dirty ; but, then, who cares? "Certainly not a prairie dog, enjoying enjoy-ing himself or herself on a rainy day I "And we mothers don't scold then, for our faces, too, get dirty !" And the little prairie dogs laughed, and their laughs really sounded quite a bit like laughB. They have been called "dogs" because be-cause their laugh Is something like a dog's bark, but it's a very jolly one. Their tails are very short and make them look very merry and funny. In fact, the prairie dogs are as pleasant as any little creatures to be found. "I don't see," said Mother Prairie Dog, "how that cousin of ours, the woodchuck, can be so solemn. "He doesn't half know how to enjoy life." "Yes, and we're always jolly," said Father Prairie Dog. "When we're free in our homes in the Western prairies of the United States we're in just as good spirits as we are here, where we're safer. "On the prairies the coyotes go after us." "We enjoy the free life," said Mother Moth-er Prairie Dog, barking merrily, "and we enjoy the zoo life. "But we do not change our ways when we come to the zoo, as the bears do. "When they're free they go to sleep for the winter, but in the zoo they don't do such a thing. "We do. We dig down in our little holes and then we say : " 'Good winter,' which is our good night, of course, and we sleep the winter through, r.no or no zoo, in oar ground homes. "W hen the snow is deep I've heard that the keeper comes and brushes it off our nnM. holes on the out- go Soemh. side. "But we're all right, though we do appreciate his kindness. "Little prairie dogs never change their ways and they are never anything any-thing else but pleasant. "But now let's get to our muddy work. "Ha! Hal (Bark, bark!) Oh, whal a lark!" |