A HEARTY EATER
A GREAT eater was Grandfather Mole. And having an enormous appetite he was fortunate in being expert at finding angleworms.
To be sure, he had one advantage that the birds, for instance, didn't enjoy: he was able to prowl about his galleries through the ground and find the angleworms right where they lived. He didn't need to wait--as the birds did--until an angleworm stuck his head above ground.
Mrs. Jolly Robin had often wished--when she was trying to feed a rapidly-growing family--that she could hunt for angleworms as Grandfather Mole did. And this summer it seemed to her that she never would be able to take proper care of her nestful of children.
There was one of her family in particular that was especially greedy. Mrs. Robin had begun to suspect that he was no child of hers, but a young Cowbird. Almost as soon as she had finished building her nest she had discovered a strange-looking egg there. It had been the first to hatch. And now the youngster that came from it was just enough older than the rest of her children to jostle them, and to grab the biggest worms for himself.
It was no wonder that Mrs. Robin needed help. And seeing Grandfather Mole one morning, she explained her difficulty to him, asking if he wouldn't be so kind as to capture angleworms for her.
"Why, certainly! Certainly!" said Grandfather Mole.
And Mrs. Robin breathed a sigh of relief. She felt that her troubles were ended.
"Will you begin to help me at once?" she asked Grandfather Mole.
"I'm sorry that I can't do that," he told her. "You see, I haven't had my breakfast yet. So of course I must catch a few angleworms for myself."
Mrs. Robin was a bit disappointed. But she told Grandfather Mole that it was all right--that she knew a person of his age ought not to go without his breakfast.
So Grandfather Mole went back into the hole through which he had lately come up, first saying however that he would return after he had breakfasted.
Mrs. Robin then set to work herself, to find what she could to feed her clamoring family. Though she hurried as fast as she could, by the time the morning was almost half gone her children were still hungry; and to Mrs. Robin's distress Grandfather Mole had not yet showed himself again.
Mrs. Robin had been watching for him. And she had about given him up in despair when all at once he rose out of the ground.
"Good!" she cried. "Now you can help me, for you must have had your breakfast by this time."
"Yes, I have!" said Grandfather Mole. "I've just finished. But I always begin my luncheon at this hour. So if you don't mind I'll go down into my galleries and hunt for a few angleworms; and when I've had a good meal I'll come back here."
Well, what could Mrs. Robin say? She nodded her head; and she hoped, as Grandfather Mole vanished, that perhaps he would eat only a light luncheon.
But he never reappeared until mid-afternoon. And since he announced then that he was ready to begin his dinner Mrs. Jolly Robin saw that she could expect no help from him whatsoever.
She was terribly upset. But there was nothing she could do except to tell her husband that he would have to spend all his time catching angleworms for the family. And since he was glad enough to do that, Mrs. Robin managed to feed her children all they needed. Even the young Cowbird in her nest had all he wanted.
And Mrs. Robin remarked that it was lucky her husband hadn't such a terrible appetite as some people's--meaning Grandfather Mole's, of course.