Each little beast instantly mounted guard on the top of his house, and prepared, as it were, "to receive cavalry." The most ludicrous thing about them was that, although the most timid and cowardly creatures in the world, they seemed the most impertinent things that ever lived! Knowing that their holes afforded them a perfectly safe retreat, they sat close beside them; and as the hunters slowly approached, they elevated their heads, wagged their little tails, showed their teeth, and chattered at them like monkeys.

The nearer they came the more angry and furious did the prairie-dogs become, until Dick Varley almost fell off his horse with suppressed laughter.

They let the hunters come close up, waxing louder and louder in their wrath; but the instant a hand was raised to throw a stone or point a gun, a thousand little heads dived into a thousand holes, and a thousand little tails wriggled for an instant in the air--then a dead silence reigned over the deserted scene.
"Bien, them's have dive into de bo'-els of de eart'," said Henri with a broad grin.
Presently a thousand noses appeared, and nervously disappeared, like the wink of an eye.

Then they appeared again, and a thousand pair of eyes followed.

Instantly, like Jack in the box, they were all on the top of their hillocks again, chattering and wagging their little tails as vigorously as ever.