pened to him.

"I'll find him," said Mr. Blake. "You children had better stay back
there," and he motioned to them not to come any farther. Hal and Mab stood
still.

"What is it? What's the matter?" Mr. Porter, coming from another part of
the garden where he had been pulling up some turnips. "Has anything
happened?"

"Something has happened to Roly-Poly," replied Hal.

"Hear him howl?" inquired Mab.

"I should say I did!" cried Mr. Porter. "And I guess I know what's the
matter to. He's in the trap."

"In the trap?" cried Hal in surprise. "What trap?"

Mr. Porter did not answer. He ran down to where Daddy Blake was poking
among the green vines and bushes, trying to find Roly.

"Come on!" exclaimed Hal. "Let's go see what it is."

"Daddy told us to stay here," said Mab. "We can't go."

Hal knew that, and, much as he wanted to see what was going on, he would
not disobey his father. Mab, too, would have liked to run down where Daddy
Blake and Mr. Porter were.

"Bow-wow! Ki-yi!" barked and howled Roly again, and then the children
heard their father and his friend, the man next door, laughing.

"I guess Roly can't be hurt very much or Daddy wouldn't laugh," said Mab.

"I guess not," agreed Hal. "I wish we could go see what it is."

Just then their father came out from among the tall lima beans. He had
Roly in his arms, and the little poodle dog was cuddled up as though he
did not want to leave them.

"Is he hurt?" asked Mab.

"A little," her father answered.

"Where?" Hal wanted to know.

"On his tail. It was pinched a little in the mole trap, where he was
caught fast. But we got you out; didn't we Roly-Poly?"

"Bow-wow; Ki-yi!" yelped the poodle.

"Was he in the mole trap?" asked Hal.

"And what is a mole trap?" asked Mab.

"Well, I see I'll have to tell you more about the garden," answered Daddy
Blake with a laugh, as he gave Roly over to his little girl and boy, who
eagerly petted him. "For the mole is one of the garden pests, and the
trap, Mr. Porter set to catch some who were spoiling his things, caught
Roly-Poly instead."

"Is a mole a worm?" Hal wanted to know. "Or is it like a potato bug?"

"It's a little animal like a mouse," said his father, "only it is blind.
It lives underground, in the dark all the while, so really it has no use
for eyes, any more than have the blind fish in the big Kentucky cave.

"But, though a mole is blind, it does not stop him from turning up the
ground and up