Tommy Smith saw that he had not said the right thing, so he tried to think of something to say that the mole would like better. “Oh,” he said at last, “what a very pretty, soft coat you have! I like it very much, indeed.”
“Yes; feel it,” said the mole. “It is a very handsome fur; and I can tell you something about it which is curious.”
“What is that?” said Tommy Smith.
“Why, you may stroke it whichever way you like,” answered the mole, “without hurting me. It is not every animal that has a coat like that. There is the cat, poor thing! If you stroke her fur one way, she is very pleased and begins to purr; but if you stroke it the other way, it hurts her, and she does not like it at all. That is because her hair is long and lies all one way. Now my hair is short, and it does not lie any way.”
“I suppose you mean that it does not point either towards your head or your tail,” said Tommy Smith.
“Yes, that is what I mean,” said the mole. “Instead of that, it sticks straight up, and when you stroke it, it moves whichever way your hand moves, without making me feel at all uncomfortable.”
“That is a very nice fur to have,” said Tommy Smith. “Then, I suppose that sometimes if you were burrowing, and you wanted to go backwards for a little way, it would not hurt you to do so.”
“Not at all,” said the mole. “Now the poor cat could not do that. She could not go backwards in a burrow, because it would rub all her hair up the wrong way.”
“But cats don’t burrow,” said Tommy Smith.
“Of course not,” said the mole. “They know that they would not be able to, so they don’t try. They are poor things.”