however, but by clapping her bill upon a fat bug that was trying to hide
under a potato-top. And away she flew to her nest, leaving Grandfather
Mole to talk to the air, if he wished.

"She went off without thanking me," he muttered. To be sure, he hadn't
seen Mrs. Robin go, but he had heard the beat of her wings as she began
her flight. He didn't know that he had barely escaped a sharp scolding.

"What do you think Grandfather Mole has just said to me?" Mrs. Robin
asked her husband, whom she found at the nest feeding their children.

Jolly Robin made three guesses. But none of them was right. So his wife
repeated Grandfather Mole's remarks. And as usual Jolly Robin laughed.

"I shouldn't pay any attention to what Grandfather Mole says," he
advised his wife. "I should keep an eye out for big angleworms, if I
were you. Grandfather Mole may be mistaken. He may have caught only the
second biggest one."

What her husband said made Mrs. Robin feel better. And she declared that
she would surprise Grandfather Mole yet.

Strange to say, the very next day Grandfather Mole spoke to Mrs. Robin
again and told her that "there was no use trying to surprise him, so she
needn't waste her valuable time trying to do it."

This news made Mrs. Robin quite speechless. She couldn't think how
Grandfather Mole had happened to learn of her remark, unless her husband
had been gossiping with his friends. And if that was the case, Mrs.
Robin didn't mean to let anything of the kind occur again. So she went
on searching for her children's breakfast and said nothing to any one
about Grandfather Mole's latest bit of advice.

Mrs. Robin worked harder than ever that day. It seemed to her husband
that she had eyes for nothing but worms. Certainly she paid little
attention to him. So he couldn't help feeling pleased when she called to
him toward evening.

He flew quickly to her side. And he saw at once that she needed his
help. For Mrs. Robin had an end of a pinkish-white worm in her bill, on
which she was tugging as hard as she could.

"I think it's the biggest one in the garden!" she managed to gasp. "But
it simply won't come up out of the ground."

"It must be the grandfather of them all!" Jolly Robin cried. And laying
hold of the worm himself, he pulled with her.

Somehow there seemed a great commotion in the loose dirt at their feet,
as they struggled to get the worm out of its hiding-place. And at last,
to their great delight, they felt