“You, indeed!” answered the mole. “And why should I want to see you?”
“I’m afraid you are blind,” Tommy Smith said quite sadly.
“At anyrate,” said the mole, “I have less seeing to do than almost any other animal, and, when I think of that, I can’t help feeling proud, though I know I oughtn’t to be. But I think you have talked enough about my eyes,” the mole continued. “Perhaps you would like to know something about my teeth now. Look! there they are,” and she opened her mouth as wide as she could, which was not very wide, for her mouth was so small. What funny little white teeth they were, and how sharp,—as sharp and as pointed as needles.
“Why are they so pointed?” asked Tommy Smith. “The rabbit’s teeth are not at all like that, and the rat’s are not either.”
“It is because we eat different things,” said the mole. “Different kinds of animals have different food, and so they have different kinds of teeth to eat it with. Mine are nice and sharp, because they have to bite and kill whatever they catch hold of.”
“But what is it that they have to bite and kill?” said Tommy Smith.
“Ah, you would never guess,” answered the mole. “You must know that we moles are very brave animals, and we fight a great deal; sometimes with each other, but mostly with great serpents which live in the ground, although it really belongs to us.”
“Serpents?” said Tommy Smith. “Why, do you mean snakes?”
“Of course I do,” said the mole.
