"You're not much acquainted with Mr. Crow," he replied. "If he has made up his mind that I'm stealing corn nothing I could say would change his opinion."
"Can't I help you in some way?" Mr. Meadow Mouse asked. "I'd do almost anything, because you've let me use your galleries."
Grandfather Mole pondered for a time. [p. 85]
"Perhaps there is a way you can help," he said at last. "If you'll manage somehow to let Mr. Crow catch you in one of these hills, with your mouth full of corn, he'd know that you were the guilty party."
Mr. Meadow Mouse paled at the thought of such a situation. And his legs shook beneath him. "Oh! I—I couldn't do that!" he stammered. "Can't you think of some other way?"
"Yes, I can!" Grandfather replied. "I'll let him catch me in a hill of corn."
"With corn in your mouth?" Mr. Meadow Mouse inquired eagerly.
"No!" said Grandfather Mole. "With you in my mouth!" When he chose, Grandfather Mole could be very spry. And as he said those words he made a quick rush toward Mr. Meadow Mouse.
Then there was a great scurrying down there in the dark.