TWO AND A TOADSTOOL
GRANDFATHER MOLE had promised Mr. Meadow Mouse that he would loan him his toadstool sunshade--or umbrella--the very next time it rained. But when he agreed to that, Grandfather hadn't the slightest idea there was a shower coming. Mr. Meadow Mouse, however, had watched the dark clouds gathering in the sky. But he had said nothing of what he saw. And when the rain-drops began to patter on top of Grandfather Mole's sunshade Mr. Meadow Mouse cried in a brisk voice: "I'll thank you, sir, for the loan of your umbrella!"
Now, Grandfather Mole had never used his umbrella until that very day. It was not a quarter of an hour since he had discovered it standing in the garden. And when he had made his promise to Mr. Meadow Mouse he had had no idea that it was going to rain so soon. He didn't like the thought of loaning a new umbrella the first day he owned it.
"Can't you wait?" he asked Mr. Meadow Mouse. "Wouldn't some other day suit you just as well?"
But Mr. Meadow Mouse reminded him that a promise was a promise.
"Well, then--can't you squeeze in beside me?" Grandfather Mole asked him.
But Mr. Meadow Mouse said that he didn't see how he could do that. "Now that it rains there's no more room under your umbrella than there was a few moments ago, when the sun was shining."
"You're mistaken," said Grandfather Mole.
Mr. Meadow Mouse looked surprised. "I don't understand how that can be," he muttered.
"This toadstool is growing bigger all the time," Grandfather Mole explained.
"Very well!" said Mr. Meadow Mouse. "If you think there's room for two, I'll crowd in." As he spoke he wedged himself between Grandfather Mole and the stem of the toadstool umbrella. And immediately Grandfather Mole found himself out in the rain. The old gentleman didn't like that very well; and he said as much, too.
"It's plain that your umbrella didn't grow as much as you thought," Mr. Meadow Mouse retorted.
"You're mistaken," Grandfather Mole told him once more. "My umbrella grew exactly as much as I expected it would. But there was one thing I forgot."
"What was that?"
"You were growing at the same time," Grandfather Mole replied.
"Yes! And there's another thing that you forgot!" Mr. Meadow Mouse exclaimed.
"I doubt it," said Grandfather Mole. And though he didn't ask what it was, Mr. Meadow Mouse told him.
"You were growing too!" he cried.
But Grandfather Mole couldn't agree with Mr. Meadow Mouse.
"I'm too old to grow any more," he said.
"Pardon me," said Mr. Meadow Mouse, "but I don't see how a person with your well known appetite can help growing fat. And anyhow I'm sorry you're out in the rain. But it's certainly not my fault."
"We won't discuss that," Grandfather Mole told him. "And since I don't want to get wet I'm going home.... I hope you'll take good care of my new sunshade. And please don't forget to return it!" he added anxiously.
"I'll leave it right here for you," Mr. Meadow Mouse promised.
Though Grandfather Mole was far from satisfied he crawled into the ground and left Mr. Meadow Mouse to enjoy the rain pattering on the top of the toadstool. And the next day, to his great relief, Grandfather Mole found his sunshade in the same spot. Mr. Meadow Mouse hadn't taken it away. To tell the truth, he had tried to; but he had found that he couldn't move it. Grandfather Mole said it was the first sunshade that a borrower had ever returned to him.
And that was the truth. For he had never owned a sunshade before.