ried about Farmer Green's cat, why didn't he dig a hole for
himself at once, and get out of harm's way?

Since Rusty Wren didn't know, he asked Grandfather Mole--in little more
than a whisper. But Grandfather Mole only shook his head impatiently, as
if to say that digging a hole wouldn't help him this time.

Meanwhile some of Rusty Wren's friends had come up to see what was going
on. And talking in low tones, so that they wouldn't attract the cat's
attention, they agreed with him that there was some mystery about
Grandfather Mole. But not one of them knew what it could be.

"He's lost something!" Rusty Wren declared.

"There's no doubt of that," Jolly Robin chimed in.

"What can it be?" little Mr. Chippy piped in his thin voice.

"I know!" Rusty Wren exclaimed abruptly. "It's his bearings! Grandfather
Mole has lost his bearings!"

IX

GOOD NEWS FROM BELOW

WHEN Rusty Wren decided that Grandfather Mole had lost his bearings and
that that was the reason why he was running about the garden in a most
peculiar fashion, the rest of the birds began to wonder whether they
oughtn't to help Grandfather Mole find them, since he was blind.

The Worm-eating Warbler, however, who was none too friendly towards
Grandfather Mole, said that he had his doubts as to Grandfather Mole's
blindness.

"If he can find angleworms in the dark he certainly ought to be able to
find his bearings in broad daylight," he sneered.

But Rusty Wren pointed out that nobody could _see_ bearings, anyhow--a
remark that puzzled the Worm-eating Warbler more than a little. To tell
the truth, he had no idea what bearings were. And at last he admitted
that he didn't know.

"What are bearings, anyhow?" he asked Rusty Wren. "I don't understand
what you mean."

"Oh, I mean that Grandfather Mole has lost his way," Rusty Wren
explained. "He doesn't know how to get home."

The Worm-eating Warbler asked why Grandfather Mole didn't dig a new hole
for himself, if he had lost the one he used when he came up in the
garden. And when he saw that Rusty Wren couldn't answer his question the
Worm-eating Warbler said he had his doubts as to Rusty Wren's ideas
about Grandfather Mole.

"It's my opinion," he went on, "that Grandfather Mole has eaten all the
worms that lived in the ground; and now he's hoping to find some in the
air."

Although everybody laughed at such a notion, the Worm-eating Warbler
declared that he had a right to his own belief. And w