“WE MOLES ARE VERY HEROIC”
“Snakes that live in the ground!” Tommy Smith cried. “Why, I don’t know of any that do. The grass-snake doesn’t, or the adder either. What are these snakes like, Mrs. Mole?”
“They are smooth and slimy,” said the mole. “They have no head, or, if they have, it looks like another tail, and they are always crawling through the ground, which is ours, of course, and trying to break into our palaces.”
“Oh, but I call those worms!” said Tommy Smith.
“You may call them so if you like,” said the mole, “but I call them snakes. You should see the way I fight with them! How they writhe and twist about when I seize them between my sharp teeth. They try hard to get away, and they would kill me if only they could. But I am too brave and too strong for them, so I kill them instead, and eat them as well. We moles are very heroic.”
“Do you eat anything else?” asked Tommy Smith.
“Caterpillars sometimes, and a beetle or two,” answered the mole. “But I like snakes best of all.”
“Worms,” said Tommy Smith.