“It’s very pretty,” the rat-terrier said with a lump in his throat.

Suddenly the animals started shouting, “King Benjamin! King Benjamin!” Paco turned to see him walk in with his hands gripping the straps of his backpack. All gathered around him happily.

“Ah! Your Majesty, it’s so good to see you!” Clementine said.

“I hope I’m not too late. I got out of the house as fast as I could.”

“Did you bring food?”

“Lots of it!”

“Then all is forgiven!” Clementine said with a satisfied smile.

“Ready to go, my king?” Roscoe walked to his side.

“You bet! I got a good night’s sleep, too!”

“Pshh, I wish I could say the same. You’ll see what I’m talking about when you’re lying next to a sleep-talking pig!” He gave Clementine an irritated look.

“Hey!…. Do I really talk in my sleep?”

“Yes!”

The rat-terrier approached. “Are we ready to leave, then?”

They looked at one another and each said in his turn, “I am.”

“Very well, then let’s be on our way.”

The animals cheered as they walked toward the tunnel. The hall echoed with it.

“Three cheers for our heroes!” shouted a porcupine.

The crowd shouted in unison, “Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray! Hip hip hooray!”

A gopher climbed onto the back of a collie to look over the crowd. “May King Pugsly’s courage be with you all!”

Paco looked back and saw Abigail. Her two children smiled and waved to him. He smiled back.

The four disappeared around the corner.

CHAPTER TWELVE

A Picnic in the Pasture

THEY HOPPED OUT of the fox den and stood on the road. Benjamin stared at his house a few moments.

“Did you forget something, Sire?” Paco asked.

“No, it’s just…it doesn’t seem possible that all these years my house has been right across from yours.”

“And we’re making sure that our house is across from yours for many more,” Paco said with a smile.

A thought came over Benjamin as he looked down at the fox den. “Hey, how come I’ve never seen you guys coming in and out of there?”

The goat smiled and looked up at the boy. “Because we’re good!” They all laughed.

Along the road they looked for a big enough opening in the row of green and gold hedge trees for Benjamin to fit through. Rusty barbed wire that had been forced into the closely growing trunks blocked his passage. Clementine spotted a section of loose fence hanging low from an overstretching tree.

“Try this spot, Sire.” The pig hopped over the dead sticks on the ground and passed under the fence. Benjamin crawled on his hands and knees, barely getting his backpack through, followed by Paco and Roscoe. Short evergreens had grown behind the hedge row, blocking visibility from the Biggs’s house.