The Tale of Grandfather Mole | Page 8

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