Chapter 2

Grandfather Mole's retort struck the Worm-eating Warbler dumb. He could think of nothing more to say. So he flew off and hid in some raspberry bushes. And he couldn't help saying to himself what a strange world it was and what strange persons there were in it.

VIII

LOSING HIS BEARINGS

IT often happened, when Grandfather Mole came up from his home under Farmer Green's garden, that he turned straight around and went back again. Sometimes, to be sure, he ran about a bit in a bewildered way, before he disappeared. For he never felt at home in the world above; and he was always uneasy until he felt the darkness closing in around him.

So nobody thought it strange when Grandfather Mole came tumbling up amongst the turnips one day and began running blindly around the garden, zig-zagging in every direction. Nobody that saw him paid much attention to him. But at last Rusty Wren, who had come to the garden to look for worms, noticed that Grandfather Mole was quite upset over something. He didn't seem to have any notion of going back into the ground, but kept twisting this way and that, with his long nose turning here and turning there, in a manner that was unmistakably inquiring.

"What's the matter?" Rusty Wren finally asked him, for his curiosity soon got the better of him.

But Grandfather Mole didn't appear to hear. Perhaps he didn't want to answer the question.

"Have you lost something?" Rusty Wren cried.

But Grandfather Mole never stopped to reply. He never stopped running to and fro. And Rusty Wren became more curious than ever. It was plain, to him, that something unusual was afoot. And he wanted to know what it was. "Can't I help you?" he asked in his shrillest tones, flying close to Grandfather Mole and speaking almost in his ear--only Grandfather Mole had no ears, so far as Rusty Wren could see. "Can't I help you?"

"Yes, you can!" Grandfather Mole answered at last. "If you wish to help me, for pity's sake go away and keep still! I don't want the whole neighborhood to come a-running. The cat will be here the first thing we know."

Rusty Wren felt sure, then, that Grandfather Mole was in trouble. And if he was worried about Farmer Green's cat, why didn't he dig a hole for himself at once, and get out of harm's way?

Since Rusty Wren didn't know, he asked Grandfather Mole--in little more than a whisper. But Grandfather Mole only shook his head impatiently, as if to say that digging a hole wouldn't help him this time.

Meanwhile some of Rusty Wren's friends had come up to see what was going on. And talking in low tones, so that they wouldn't attract the cat's attention, they agreed with him that there was some mystery about Grandfather Mole. But not one of them knew what it could be.

"He's lost something!" Rusty Wren declared.

"There's no doubt of that," Jolly Robin chimed in.

"What can it be?" little Mr. Chippy piped in his thin voice.

"I know!" Rusty Wren exclaimed abruptly. "It's his bearings! Grandfather Mole has lost his bearings!"

IX

GOOD NEWS FROM BELOW

WHEN Rusty Wren decided that Grandfather Mole had lost his bearings and that that was the reason why he was running about the garden in a most peculiar fashion, the rest of the birds began to wonder whether they oughtn't to help Grandfather Mole find them, since he was blind.

The Worm-eating Warbler, however, who was none too friendly towards Grandfather Mole, said that he had his doubts as to Grandfather Mole's blindness.

"If he can find angleworms in the dark he certainly ought to be able to find his bearings in broad daylight," he sneered.

But Rusty Wren pointed out that nobody could _see_ bearings, anyhow--a remark that puzzled the Worm-eating Warbler more than a little. To tell the truth, he had no idea what bearings were. And at last he admitted that he didn't know.

"What are bearings, anyhow?" he asked Rusty Wren. "I don't understand what you mean."

"Oh, I mean that Grandfather Mole has lost his way," Rusty Wren explained. "He doesn't know how to get home."

The Worm-eating Warbler asked why Grandfather Mole didn't dig a new hole for himself, if he had lost the one he used when he came up in the garden. And when he saw that Rusty Wren couldn't answer his question the Worm-eating Warbler said he had his doubts as to Rusty Wren's ideas about Grandfather Mole.

"It's my opinion," he went on, "that Grandfather Mole has eaten all the worms that lived in the ground; and now he's hoping to find some in the air."

Although everybody laughed at such a notion, the Worm-eating Warbler declared that he had a right to his own belief. And when he added that he hadn't seen an angleworm for two days there were a few of his bird companions that began to think perhaps there was some reason in his remarks, after all.

But Rusty Wren declined to change his opinion.

"There's only one way to be sure; and that's to ask Grandfather Mole!" little Mr. Chippy cried.

"It wouldn't do any good," Rusty told him. "Grandfather Mole won't answer any questions. But he's in some sort of trouble. There's no doubt of that."

They looked down at Grandfather Mole, who was still scurrying frantically about the garden. If he heard their talk he did nothing to let them know it. And they had begun to think that they would never know his secret when a person who looked somewhat like Grandfather Mole thrust her head and shoulders out of a hole in the ground.

"That"--Rusty Wren whispered--"that is Grandfather Mole's daughter. I know, for I've seen her before." And listening sharply, the bird people heard her say, "Don't worry, Father! I've found them."

Grandfather Mole didn't wait for anything more. He didn't even wait until he had found the opening in which his daughter had appeared. He began to dig right where he stood. And he was out of sight in short order.

Although the bird people didn't know it, he was anxious to reach his grandchildren. He had them out for a stroll through his underground galleries; and walking behind him they had taken a wrong turn when Grandfather Mole didn't know it. After looking for them in vain down below he had feared that they might have found their way into the open air. And that was why he was running about in such a distracted fashion.

X

MRS. ROBIN'S WISH

IN order to provide enough food for her children--as well as for the young Cowbird that she was bringing up--Mrs. Jolly Robin had to work hard every day. Though her husband gladly did what he could to help her, he complained sometimes about the stranger in their nest.

"Our family is certainly big enough without him," he often remarked. "We ought to turn him out to shift for himself."

But Mrs. Robin wouldn't hear of such a thing.

"It's not his fault that his mother left him here--in the egg," she would remind Jolly Robin. "If we set him adrift the poor child would starve--unless the cat got him."

And then Jolly Robin would feel ashamed that he had even thought of being so cruel to an infant bird, even if he was a Cowbird. So he would set to work harder than ever gathering worms and grubs and bugs; and before long he would find himself singing merrily, "Cheerily, cheer-up!" because it made him happy to know that he was doing somebody a good turn.

Once in a while Grandfather Mole thrust his head out of the soil of the garden, as if he were watching Mr. and Mrs. Robin at their task. Of course he couldn't see what they were doing. But Mrs. Robin said that it gave her a queer turn to have Grandfather Mole stick his nose out of the ground at her very feet. And since he was too busy catching angleworms for himself to help her and her husband, she wished he would keep out of sight.

Sometimes Grandfather Mole would speak to Mrs. Robin, or her husband; for he could hear them talking. And when you hear anybody in a garden exclaiming, "Oh, here's a big one! The children will like him, if I can ever pull him loose!" you may know at once that the speaker is talking about an angleworm. There can be no mistake about it.

When Grandfather Mole overheard Mrs. Robin making such a remark he would quite likely advise her to "try a smaller one."

Such a suggestion only made Mrs. Robin pull all the harder.

"Grandfather Mole wants all the big ones himself," she would splutter as soon as she and her husband were where Grandfather Mole couldn't listen to what she said. And then, probably, Jolly Robin would laugh and tell her not to mind, for there ought to be worms enough for everybody.

More than once, when Grandfather Mole had advised her to "try a smaller one," Mrs. Robin had declared afterward that she wished she could catch the biggest angleworm in the whole garden, just to spite old Grandfather Mole and teach him that other people had their rights, as well as he.

"Well, well!" Jolly Robin always exclaimed with a laugh. "Well, well! Perhaps some day you will find the grandfather of all the angleworms!"

XI

SURPRISING GRANDFATHER MOLE

SOMEHOW Grandfather Mole heard that Mrs. Robin hoped to capture the biggest angleworm in the garden. So the very next time he happened to find her at work there he offered her another bit of unsought advice. And Mrs. Robin liked it no better than any other of Grandfather Mole's counsels.

"Don't waste your valuable time looking for the biggest angleworm in the garden!" he told her. "I've caught him already."

Well, for once Mrs. Robin almost said something tart to the old gentleman. But she checked herself in time; not by biting her tongue, however, but by clapping her bill upon a fat bug that was trying to hide under a potato-top. And away she flew to her nest, leaving Grandfather Mole to talk to the air, if he wished.

"She went off without thanking me," he muttered. To be sure, he hadn't seen Mrs. Robin go, but he had heard the beat of her wings as she began her flight. He didn't know that he had barely escaped a sharp scolding.

"What do you think Grandfather Mole has just said to me?" Mrs. Robin asked her husband, whom she found at the nest feeding their children.

Jolly Robin made three guesses. But none of them was right. So his wife repeated Grandfather Mole's remarks. And as usual Jolly Robin laughed.

"I shouldn't pay any attention to what Grandfather Mole says," he advised his wife. "I should keep an eye out for big angleworms, if I were you. Grandfather Mole may be mistaken. He may have caught only the second biggest one."

What her husband said made Mrs. Robin feel better. And she declared that she would surprise Grandfather Mole yet.

Strange to say, the very next day Grandfather Mole spoke to Mrs. Robin again and told her that "there was no use trying to surprise him, so she needn't waste her valuable time trying to do it."

This news made Mrs. Robin quite speechless. She couldn't think how Grandfather Mole had happened to learn of her remark, unless her husband had been gossiping with his friends. And if that was the case, Mrs. Robin didn't mean to let anything of the kind occur again. So she went on searching for her children's breakfast and said nothing to any one about Grandfather Mole's latest bit of advice.

Mrs. Robin worked harder than ever that day. It seemed to her husband that she had eyes for nothing but worms. Certainly she paid little attention to him. So he couldn't help feeling pleased when she called to him toward evening.

He flew quickly to her side. And he saw at once that she needed his help. For Mrs. Robin had an end of a pinkish-white worm in her bill, on which she was tugging as hard as she could.

"I think it's the biggest one in the garden!" she managed to gasp. "But it simply won't come up out of the ground."

"It must be the grandfather of them all!" Jolly Robin cried. And laying hold of the worm himself, he pulled with her.

Somehow there seemed a great commotion in the loose dirt at their feet, as they struggled to get the worm out of its hiding-place. And at last, to their great delight, they felt it--saw it--coming.

Then a shower of dirt flew into their faces and both Jolly Robin and his wife tumbled over backward.

It was no worm that Mrs. Robin had found, but Grandfather Mole's hairless tail sticking out of the ground. Together they had dragged him to the surface.

And if Mrs. Robin hadn't found the grandfather of all angleworms, at least she had found Grandfather Mole.

And she had given him a surprise, too.

XII

MR. BLACKBIRD'S ADVICE

OUT of the pine woods beyond the meadow Mr. Blackbird sometimes came to breakfast in Farmer Green's garden. He claimed that he came there to look for angleworms. But those that knew him best said that he wasn't above taking an egg out of some small bird's nest. And some whispered that he had even been known to devour a nestling.

Whenever he visited the garden he told everybody that he should never come there again because Grandfather Mole was too greedy. Mr. Blackbird said that Grandfather Mole didn't leave enough angleworms to make it worth his while to fly across the meadow. And one day when he chanced to meet Grandfather Mole he told him that it was a shame, the way he was treating Farmer Green.

"Farmer Green is good enough to let you live underneath his garden. But instead of showing him that you are grateful you eat all of his angleworms you can."

Grandfather Mole was thunderstruck. After pondering over Mr. Blackbird's speech for a few moments he raised his head. "What shall I do?" he asked in a plaintive voice.

"I should think you'd turn over a new leaf," Mr. Blackbird told him severely.

And Grandfather Mole promised that he would.

"I'll turn one over to-day," he said, "if you think it will please Farmer Green."

"There's no doubt that it will," Mr. Blackbird assured him in a slightly more amiable tone.

A hopeful look came into Grandfather Mole's face. And after thanking Mr. Blackbird for his advice, he turned away and burrowed out of sight.

Then Mr. Blackbird selected a good many choice tidbits here and there, which he bolted with gusto. And after he had eaten what Jolly Robin, who had been watching him, declared afterward to have been a hearty meal and big enough for any one, Mr. Blackbird began to scold. He announced that there wasn't any use of his looking for anything more to eat in that neighborhood, for there wasn't enough there to keep a mosquito alive. And thereupon he flew away. Nor was anybody sorry to see him go.

Most of the feathered folk agreed that Mr. Blackbird ought not to have spoken as he did to Grandfather Mole. But Jolly Robin's wife said that she was glad there was somebody with backbone enough to tell Grandfather Mole the truth.

"If there were many more like Grandfather Mole in the garden we'd all have to spend our summers somewhere else," she said, "or starve."

Jolly Robin told her that she would find things much the same, no matter where she lived. "What's a garden, without an old mole or two?" he asked the company in general. And since nobody answered, Jolly Robin seemed to think he had silenced Mrs. Robin--for once.

But it was not so.

"A garden without an old mole in it would be just what I'd like," she cried.

"Well, anyhow, my dear," her husband said, "please remember that Grandfather Mole is going to turn over a new leaf."

XIII

TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF

SEVERAL days passed before Mr. Blackbird returned to Farmer Green's garden. And when at last he flew across the meadow one morning and perched on the garden fence, to take a look around before beginning his breakfast, he saw that Mrs. Jolly Robin was making countless trips between the garden and her home. Early as it was she was hard at work feeding her nestlings.

"How are the pickings this morning?" Mr. Blackbird called to her.

"I'm finding plenty for my children to eat--if that's what you mean," Mrs. Robin replied somewhat haughtily. Mr. Blackbird laughed in the sleeve of his black coat. The rascal delighted in using language that did not please Mrs. Robin.

"If the pickings are good, then there must be fewer pickers," he remarked with a grin. "I suppose Grandfather Mole has taken my advice and turned over a new leaf."

"I don't know about that," said Mrs. Robin. "Anyhow, there are plenty of good crawling things stirring after last night's shower. Everything seems to be coming up out of the garden this morning."

She had scarcely finished speaking when Grandfather Mole poked his head from beneath a head of lettuce. Mr. Blackbird was just about to begin his breakfast. But he paused when he saw Grandfather Mole.

"Hello!" he cried. "What brings you to the surface?"

Grandfather Mole knew Mr. Blackbird's voice at once.

"I'm glad you're here!" he exclaimed. "I want you to tell Farmer Green the news. For I know he'll be delighted to hear it."

Then Mr. Blackbird did an ungentlemanly thing. He winked at Jolly Robin's wife. But he was a rowdy. So what could you expect of him?

"You've turned over a new leaf, have you?" he asked Grandfather Mole.

"Yes!" said Grandfather Mole. "And not only one! I've turned over a new one every day since I last saw you."

Mr. Blackbird replied that he was glad to know it.

"At least," Grandfather Mole continued, "I've turned over the newest leaves I could. Of course you can't turn over a leaf unless it's big enough to turn over. When a leaf is so young that it wraps itself around the main stalk it's useless to try to turn it over. And it's a great waste of time waiting for it to grow.... But it's easy to turn over a big one." Suiting his action to his words, Grandfather Mole stepped up to a loose-growing head of lettuce, and thrusting his long nose under a drooping leaf he lifted it up and pushed it over.

As soon as he moved aside a little the leaf promptly righted itself. Grandfather Mole felt it brush his back as it swept into place again.

"Of course," he remarked, "you can't expect a leaf to stay turned over, unless you want to stand and hold it in place. And that would be a great waste of time--especially for one as hungry as I am." And poking his drill-like snout into the earth, he drew forth a huge angleworm, which quickly disappeared down his throat.

Mr. Blackbird choked; and not over anything he was eating, either. He choked because he was angry.

"It's no use," he said gloomily to Mrs. Robin, as soon as he could speak. "It's no use trying to get Grandfather Mole to stop eating angleworms. In my opinion, he's too old to turn over a new leaf--the way I meant.

"You can't teach an old Mole new tricks," said Mr. Blackbird.

XIV

THE NEW SUNSHADE

GRANDFATHER MOLE was resting in the shade of a toadstool. It was a stifling, sultry day. And having come up into the garden on some errand or other, Grandfather Mole had found the sunshine upon his back altogether too hot for his liking.

He was thinking how comfortable his own cool, dark chambers were, and wondering why anybody should prefer to live above ground in the heat, when a voice called to him, "What a fine umbrella you have! It must be a handy thing to have in one's family!"

It was Mr. Meadow Mouse speaking. And since Grandfather Mole knew him to be a harmless sort of person he asked him to come over and join him.

"To be sure, there's not room enough for two under my sunshade," Grandfather Mole said. "But you can stand just outside it. And perhaps the sight of me in the shade may help you to feel cooler, even if you are in the sun."

Well, Mr. Meadow Mouse smiled a bit, all to himself. He knew that Grandfather Mole was odd. And being a good-natured person and wishing to please Grandfather Mole, Mr. Meadow Mouse joined him.

"What do you think of it now?" Grandfather Mole demanded of Mr. Meadow Mouse, almost as soon as he had stepped just outside the shade of the toadstool. "Don't you feel cooler already? I shouldn't care to stay in the garden a second without this sunshade."

Mr. Meadow Mouse wanted to be polite. So he replied that perhaps he did feel a bit more comfortable.

"You ought to own one of these," said Grandfather Mole.

"I've heard they're not always easy to find," Mr. Meadow Mouse remarked.

"That's true," Grandfather agreed.

"You don't--ahem!--you don't use this one all the time, do you?" Mr. Meadow Mouse inquired.

"No!" Grandfather Mole answered. "Not when it rains!"

"Then," said Mr. Meadow Mouse, "maybe you'll let me borrow your umbrella (or sunshade, as you call it) some rainy day."

"Certainly! You shall take it the next time it rains!" Grandfather promised.

As Mr. Meadow Mouse murmured, "Thank you!" he looked up at the sky with a knowing eye. He could see signs there. But of course Grandfather Mole had never seen the sky in all his life.

"The very next time it rains!" Mr. Meadow Mouse repeated, as if he wanted to be sure there was no misunderstanding about it.

"Certainly! Certainly!" Grandfather Mole said. "And as I've remarked before, I'd be glad to let you come under the sunshade now, beside me, if there was only room enough for both of us."

"You needn't trouble yourself," Mr. Meadow Mouse told him. And once more he scanned the sky eagerly.

"What's that?" Grandfather Mole cried suddenly, as he started up in alarm. "What struck the top of my sunshade?"

"I don't know," said Mr. Meadow Mouse. "I don't know what it was, unless it was a rain-drop."

XV

TWO AND A TOADSTOOL

GRANDFATHER MOLE had promised Mr. Meadow Mouse that he would loan him his toadstool sunshade--or umbrella--the very next time it rained. But when he agreed to that, Grandfather hadn't the slightest idea there was a shower coming. Mr. Meadow Mouse, however, had watched the dark clouds gathering in the sky. But he had said nothing of what he saw. And when the rain-drops began to patter on top of Grandfather Mole's sunshade Mr. Meadow Mouse cried in a brisk voice: "I'll thank you, sir, for the loan of your umbrella!"

Now, Grandfather Mole had never used his umbrella until that very day. It was not a quarter of an hour since he had discovered it standing in the garden. And when he had made his promise to Mr. Meadow Mouse he had had no idea that it was going to rain so soon. He didn't like the thought of loaning a new umbrella the first day he owned it.

"Can't you wait?" he asked Mr. Meadow Mouse. "Wouldn't some other day suit you just as well?"

But Mr. Meadow Mouse reminded him that a promise was a promise.

"Well, then--can't you squeeze in beside me?" Grandfather Mole asked him.

But Mr. Meadow Mouse said that he didn't see how he could do that. "Now that it rains there's no more room under your umbrella than there was a few moments ago, when the sun was shining."

"You're mistaken," said Grandfather Mole.

Mr. Meadow Mouse looked surprised. "I don't understand how that can be," he muttered.

"This toadstool is growing bigger all the time," Grandfather Mole explained.

"Very well!" said Mr. Meadow Mouse. "If you think there's room for two, I'll crowd in." As he spoke he wedged himself between Grandfather Mole and the stem of the toadstool umbrella. And immediately Grandfather Mole found himself out in the rain. The old gentleman didn't like that very well; and he said as much, too.

"It's plain that your umbrella didn't grow as much as you thought," Mr. Meadow Mouse retorted.

"You're mistaken," Grandfather Mole told him once more. "My umbrella grew exactly as much as I expected it would. But there was one thing I forgot."

"What was that?"

"You were growing at the same time," Grandfather Mole replied.

"Yes! And there's another thing that you forgot!" Mr. Meadow Mouse exclaimed.

"I doubt it," said Grandfather Mole. And though he didn't ask what it was, Mr. Meadow Mouse told him.

"You were growing too!" he cried.

But Grandfather Mole couldn't agree with Mr. Meadow Mouse.

"I'm too old to grow any more," he said.

"Pardon me," said Mr. Meadow Mouse, "but I don't see how a person with your well known appetite can help growing fat. And anyhow I'm sorry you're out in the rain. But it's certainly not my fault."