"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 n.o.body 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.