A BREAKFAST LOST
WHEN Farmer Green's cat looked around and discovered that Grandfather Mole had disappeared from the garden a puzzled look came over her face. She couldn't think where he had gone in just a few seconds.
But she knew then why Mr. Crow had laughed. And she was not pleased.
"Where is he?" she asked Mr. Crow. "You interrupted me at my breakfast and now I've lost it."
Mr. Crow was rocking back and forth on his perch, for a joke--on anybody except himself--always delighted him.
"Grandfather Mole is right here in the garden," he declared.
"Then he must have hidden beneath a vegetable," the cat observed.
"I shouldn't say that, exactly," Mr. Crow replied.
"How far away is he?" the cat demanded.
"That would be hard to tell," Mr. Crow answered.
Farmer Green's cat had never liked Mr. Crow, for no particular reason. And now she certainly had a very special reason for being angry with him.
"It's all your fault," she scolded. "If you hadn't spoken to me I'd never have taken my eyes off Grandfather Mole.... The least you can do," she added, "is to tell me this instant where Grandfather Mole is."
"I've already told you," Mr. Crow reminded her. "He's here in the garden. Find him if you can!"
At that Farmer Green's cat began to run up and down between the rows of vegetables. But she had no luck at all. So after a while she came back and told Mr. Crow that she didn't believe him.
"Tut, tut!" said Mr. Crow. "You haven't looked in the right place."
"I've searched the whole garden!" the cat cried.
"Oh, no!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "You've looked only on top of the ground. If you want to find Grandfather Mole you must look beneath the surface."
The cat was greatly disappointed when she heard that.
"You don't mean to say that he went into a hole, do you?" she asked.
"I do," Mr. Crow declared.
"I don't see one anywhere," she said.
"If I had I'd have been more careful how I let him run about."
"Ah!" said Mr. Crow. "I see you don't know that Grandfather Mole always carries a hole around with him, wherever he goes. He believes in having one handy, in case of sudden need."
"I didn't see it," the cat told him angrily.
"Of course not!" Mr. Crow agreed. "How could you see a hole until it's put in a certain place, ready to use?"
Well, the cat was puzzled. Somehow she couldn't quite understand Mr. Crow's remarks. And yet there seemed some sense in them, too. But she pretended that she understood, because she didn't want him to think she was stupid. And without thanking him for his explanation (for she was still angry) she turned and went off towards the meadow.
The whole affair amused Mr. Crow greatly. It kept him in a good humor all that day. And he went about telling everybody how Grandfather Mole had dug himself out of sight in the garden, almost under the cat's nose.
For that was exactly what had happened.