One of those great, spadelike hands was slipped
up past his face and the claws driven in beside his nose. Then it
was swept back and the loosened earth with it. The other hand was
used in the same way. It was quite plain to everybody why they
were turned out in the way they were. There was nothing slow about
the way Miner used that boring nose and those shoveling hands.
Peter Rabbit had hardly time for half a dozen long breaths before
Miner the Mole had disappeared.
"Some digging!" exclaimed Peter.
"Never again as long as I live will I boast of my digging," declared
Johnny Chuck admiringly. From the point where Miner had entered
the ground a little ridge was being pushed up, and they watched it
grow surprisingly fast as the little worker under the sod pushed
his tunnel along in the direction of his old tunnels. It was clear
that he was in a hurry to get back where he could work in peace.
"What a queer life," exclaimed Happy Jack Squirrel. "He can't
have much fun. I should think it would be awful living in the
dark that way all the time."
"You forget that he cannot see as you can, and so prefers the
dark," replied Old Mother Nature. "As for fun, he gets that in
his work. He is called Miner because he lives in the ground and
is always tunneling."
"What does he eat, the roots of plants?" asked Jumper the Hare.
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