Grandfather Mole had already buried[p. 23] his nose in the sand and was fast digging himself out of sight. And Jimmy thought that if he must wait for him again he would wait in a pleasant place.
So Jimmy Rabbit hurried to the meadow. And as he lunched on luscious clover-tops he reflected that Grandfather Mole had a queer notion of taking a stroll with a friend. He made up his mind then and there that he would never again invite Grandfather Mole to walk with him.
VI
A HEARTY EATER
A great eater was Grandfather Mole. And having an enormous appetite he was fortunate in being expert at finding angleworms.
To be sure, he had one advantage that the birds, for instance, didn't enjoy: he was able to prowl about his galleries through the ground and find the angleworms right where they lived. He didn't need to wait—as the birds did—until an angleworm stuck his head above ground.
Mrs. Jolly Robin had often wished—when she was trying to feed a rapidly-growing family—that she could hunt for[p. 25] angleworms as Grandfather Mole did. And this summer it seemed to her that she never would be able to take proper care of her nestful of children.
There was one of her family in particular that was especially greedy. Mrs. Robin had begun to suspect that he was no child of hers, but a young Cowbird. Almost as soon as she had finished building her nest she had discovered a strange-looking egg there. It had been the first to hatch. And now the youngster that came from it was just enough older than the rest of her children to jostle them, and to grab the biggest worms for himself.