“Snakes,” said the mole. But Tommy Smith was right, the mole’s snakes were harmless worms; but it is nice to think oneself a hero.
“Good-bye,” said the mole rather suddenly. “I am tired of talking, and I want to have a little sleep.”
“Oh, but it is the middle of the day,” said Tommy Smith.
“What of that?” said the mole. “I feel tired, so I shall go to sleep.”
“Then do you always sleep in the daytime?” asked Tommy Smith.
“I know nothing about daytime or nighttime,” the mole answered, “and perhaps if you lived under the ground, as I do, you would not either. I feel tired now, so I shall go to sleep now. Good-bye”; and the mother mole began to sink into the earth, and all at once she was gone,—just as Tommy Smith was going to ask her what was the use of having such a grand palace to live in if she was blind and couldn’t see it.
One sometimes thinks of a good question just too late to ask it.