Badger wishes he could still run and jump and play with his friends, Frog and Mole and Fox, but he knows he can't. Badger is old, and his body doesn't work as well as it used to. He knows it will soon be time for him to die--to "go down the Long Tunnel". And really, he's okay with that. He just hopes his friends won't be too sad when he's gone.

After Badger does "go down the Long Tunnel", his friends are very sad, indeed. They don't know how to handle their grief, but as the days go by, they each begin to remember special things Badger taught them to do, and they take comfort in those abilities and exchange stories of happy days with Badger.

One of the closing paragraphs says that "whenever Badger's name was mentioned, someone remembered another story that made them all smile." What a wonderful way to remember Badger, and what a wonderful little book to help children begin to cope with grief.