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[p. 39] 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[p. 40] 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.