THE PRAIRIE-DOG TOWN 



been informing his companions that danger was 

 passed, stepped forward and spoke to the 

 Mayor first, as though apologizing for the 

 liberty he had taken without his consent. The 

 other dogs joined him in a most earnest busi- 

 ness-like manner, as though consulting upon 

 important business as to their government or 

 the safety of the inmates of their neat and seem- 

 ingly well regulated town. While Sam lay con- 

 cealed behind the clump of weeds he allowed 

 his imagination to transform every act of the 

 intelligent, quick, little creatures into human 

 thoughts. It was this first evening that he 

 named the big dog Mayor and those who 

 gathered around him he called " the council," 

 and fancied them holding a town meeting, and 

 as each barked more excitedly than the other 

 he was certain they were having a political dis- 

 cussion on the tariff or some other subject that 

 political parties always keep upon the shelf for 

 an emergency. 



Over in the opposite direction from this sober 

 gathering, behind a new hillock on the very 

 edge of the village, were two little dogs caress- 

 ing each other and rolling Indian apples to one 

 [57] 



