Worm-eating Warbler's remarks in the least!

"Why don't you"--he inquired--"why don't you come down into the ground
and enjoy the close, damp air and the darkness? They'd be good for your
health. I've thrived down below all my life; and I'm considerably older
than you, young sir!"

Grandfather Mole's retort struck the Worm-eating Warbler dumb. He could
think of nothing more to say. So he flew off and hid in some raspberry
bushes. And he couldn't help saying to himself what a strange world it
was and what strange persons there were in it.

VIII

LOSING HIS BEARINGS

IT often happened, when Grandfather Mole came up from his home under
Farmer Green's garden, that he turned straight around and went back
again. Sometimes, to be sure, he ran about a bit in a bewildered way,
before he disappeared. For he never felt at home in the world above; and
he was always uneasy until he felt the darkness closing in around him.

So nobody thought it strange when Grandfather Mole came tumbling up
amongst the turnips one day and began running blindly around the garden,
zig-zagging in every direction. Nobody that saw him paid much attention
to him. But at last Rusty Wren, who had come to the garden to look for
worms, noticed that Grandfather Mole was quite upset over something. He
didn't seem to have any notion of going back into the ground, but kept
twisting this way and that, with his long nose turning here and turning
there, in a manner that was unmistakably inquiring.

"What's the matter?" Rusty Wren finally asked him, for his curiosity
soon got the better of him.

But Grandfather Mole didn't appear to hear. Perhaps he didn't want to
answer the question.

"Have you lost something?" Rusty Wren cried.

But Grandfather Mole never stopped to reply. He never stopped running
to and fro. And Rusty Wren became more curious than ever. It was plain,
to him, that something unusual was afoot. And he wanted to know what it
was. "Can't I help you?" he asked in his shrillest tones, flying close
to Grandfather Mole and speaking almost in his ear--only Grandfather
Mole had no ears, so far as Rusty Wren could see. "Can't I help you?"

"Yes, you can!" Grandfather Mole answered at last. "If you wish to help
me, for pity's sake go away and keep still! I don't want the whole
neighborhood to come a-running. The cat will be here the first thing we
know."

Rusty Wren felt sure, then, that Grandfather Mole was in trouble. And if
he was wor