Chapter 12

MR. BLACKBIRD'S ADVICE



OUT of the pine woods beyond the meadow Mr. Blackbird sometimes came to breakfast in Farmer Green's garden. He claimed that he came there to look for angleworms. But those that knew him best said that he wasn't above taking an egg out of some small bird's nest. And some whispered that he had even been known to devour a nestling.

Whenever he visited the garden he told everybody that he should never come there again because Grandfather Mole was too greedy. Mr. Blackbird said that Grandfather Mole didn't leave enough angleworms to make it worth his while to fly across the meadow. And one day when he chanced to meet Grandfather Mole he told him that it was a shame, the way he was treating Farmer Green.

"Farmer Green is good enough to let you live underneath his garden. But instead of showing him that you are grateful you eat all of his angleworms you can."

Grandfather Mole was thunderstruck. After pondering over Mr. Blackbird's speech for a few moments he raised his head. "What shall I do?" he asked in a plaintive voice.

"I should think you'd turn over a new leaf," Mr. Blackbird told him severely.

And Grandfather Mole promised that he would.

"I'll turn one over to-day," he said, "if you think it will please Farmer Green."

"There's no doubt that it will," Mr. Blackbird assured him in a slightly more amiable tone.

A hopeful look came into Grandfather Mole's face. And after thanking Mr. Blackbird for his advice, he turned away and burrowed out of sight.

Then Mr. Blackbird selected a good many choice tidbits here and there, which he bolted with gusto. And after he had eaten what Jolly Robin, who had been watching him, declared afterward to have been a hearty meal and big enough for any one, Mr. Blackbird began to scold. He announced that there wasn't any use of his looking for anything more to eat in that neighborhood, for there wasn't enough there to keep a mosquito alive. And thereupon he flew away. Nor was anybody sorry to see him go.

Most of the feathered folk agreed that Mr. Blackbird ought not to have spoken as he did to Grandfather Mole. But Jolly Robin's wife said that she was glad there was somebody with backbone enough to tell Grandfather Mole the truth.

"If there were many more like Grandfather Mole in the garden we'd all have to spend our summers somewhere else," she said, "or starve."

Jolly Robin told her that she would find things much the same, no matter where she lived. "What's a garden, without an old mole or two?" he asked the company in general. And since nobody answered, Jolly Robin seemed to think he had silenced Mrs. Robin--for once.

But it was not so.

"A garden without an old mole in it would be just what I'd like," she cried.