gave him a chance to dig between them.

Polly watched him get ready for work and she pouted some more.

"It would be a lot nicer out in that grassy place, and a lot easier to
dig," said she.

Johnny Chuck smiled and made the dirt fly. "It certainly would be
easier to dig," said he, when he stopped for breath, "easier for me
and easier for Bowser the Hound or for old Granny Fox, if either
wanted to dig us out. Now, these old roots are just far enough apart
for us to go in and out. They make a beautiful doorway. But Bowser the
Hound cannot get through if he tries, and he can't make our doorway
any larger. Don't you see how safe it is?"

Polly Chuck had to own up that it was safer than a home in the open
could possibly be, and Johnny went on digging. He made a long hall
down to the snuggest of bedrooms, deep, deep down under ground. Then
he made a long back hall, and all the sand from this he carried out
the front way. By and by he made a back door at the end of the back
hall, and it opened right behind a big stone fallen from the old stone
wall. You would never have guessed that there was a back door there.

His new house was finished now, and Johnny Chuck and Polly Chuck sat
on the door-step and watched jolly, round, red Mr. Sun go to bed
behind the Purple Hills and were happy.