“Well,” said the mole, “I will; and perhaps, if you are always a good boy, and never think of wearing a moleskin waistcoat, I will show it you some day from the outside; but that can only be when I have done with it, and am going to build a new one, for I should have to break open the roof for you to see into it. Well, then, the principal part of my palace is called the keep, or fortress,—I call it the fortress. It is very large, and the roof goes up into a beautiful, high dome. You know what a dome is, I suppose?”
“Oh yes,” said Tommy Smith; for once he had been to London, and he remembered the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
“I wish you could see how high and stately it is,” said the mole. “It goes right up into the bush ever so high.”
“You mean ‘into the air,’ I think,” said Tommy Smith.
“I mean what I say,” said the mole; “into the bush. That is why you can’t see it.”
“Oh, but I can see it,” said Tommy Smith. “I can always find your fortresses, Mr. Mole. I see lots of them every time I go out walking. They are not hidden at all. Why, there they are all over the field, and you know you told me to look at them yourself.”
The mole gave a little choky laugh. “Oh dear!” he cried, “and do you really think that those are my fortresses? You are very much mistaken if you do. Why, they are only the hills that I throw up when I am making my tunnels and corridors. All you will find if you open them is a hole going down into one of those. Oh no; my fortress is not built there. It is carefully hidden under a bush or the root of a tree, so that you can’t see it, however high it is. Only the wicked mole-catcher is able to find it, and I am very sorry he can.”
This was a great surprise to Tommy Smith, for he had always thought that the mole lived under those little brown heaps of earth. But he had only thought so because he had never taken any trouble to find out about it. “I see you are cleverer than I thought, Mr. Mole,” he said; “but I should like you to tell me something more about your palace and fortress.”
“I told you that it was very large,” said the mole, “and that it went up into a high dome outside. Inside, it is not nearly so high, but it is very nice and comfortable; and the floor and the sides and ceiling are always quite smooth and polished, for I polish them myself, and never leave it to the servants.”
“But how do you polish them?” said Tommy Smith.