removed didn't live under ground," continued Grandfather Frog. "Nobody
did. He wasn't so very different from a lot of other animals. Food was
plenty, and everybody was on the best of terms with everybody else.
Mr. Mole lived just as the rest did. He went and came as he pleased,
and enjoyed the sunshine and took part in all the good times of his
neighbors. Everybody liked him, and whenever he made a call, he was
sure of a welcome. But one thing Mr. Mole never did; he never meddled
in other people's affairs. No, Sir, Mr. Mole never poked his nose in
where he had no business.

"For a long time everything went smoothly with all the people of the
Green Forest and the Green Meadows. Then came hard times. They grew
harder and harder. Food was scarce and kept growing more scarce.
Everybody was hungry, and you know how it is with hungry people--they
grow ugly and quarrelsome. Matters grew worse and worse, and then it
was that fear was born. The big people, like Old King Bear and Mr.
Wolf and Mr. Panther and Mr. Lynx, began to look with hungry eyes on
the little people, and the little people began to grow afraid and hide
from the big people, and all the time they were continually quarreling
among themselves and stealing from each other to get enough to eat.

"Now, as I said before, Mr. Mole never had meddled with other people's
business, and he didn't now. He went off by himself to think things
over. 'It isn't safe to run around any more,' said he. 'I met Mr. Wolf
this morning, and he looked at me with such a hungry look in his eyes
that it gave me the cold shivers. I believe he would have eaten me, if
I hadn't crawled into an old hollow stump. Now I can't run fast,
because my legs are too short. I can't climb trees like Mr. Squirrel,
and I can't swim like Mr. Muskrat. The only thing I can do is to dig.'