That was a thing which had never been attempted in their village, and the prairie dogs were not noted for their initiative.

In learning to get together and live in villages they had apparently exhausted it all.

They were always ready to chatter, from morning to night, about anything, and protest against it, and declare that it must not be permitted, but they always shirked the bother of united action, even to suppress the most dangerous and destructive of nuisances.
"When evening came, however, they had the house to themselves.

The owls, getting lively as the sunset colors faded from the sky, scuttled forth and sat up side by side on the top of the hillock.

As soon as it was full night, and the stars had come out clear and large in the deeply crystalline sky, they began hovering hither and thither on their wide, soundless wings, hunting the tiny prairie mice, which swarmed among the hillocks after dark.
"While they were thus pleasantly occupied, the Little Villager and his companion had an idea.