The Mole who wouldn't eat worms

 The Mole who wouldn’t eat worms

By David Binelli ©2022 DM Binelli. All Rights Reserved                    1610 words

Mike is a mole and he lives in a hole.

He’s been a mole for as long as he can remember.

Like all moles, he lives underground in a tunnel that he digs with his big front paws…in fact they’re so big you could almost call them paddles. He uses his strong claws to dig away at the mud and then pushes it behind him using his back legs to move himself forward.

When there’s too much soil in the tunnel he forces it out onto the grass above. You’ve probably seen small piles of mud in a field or in the middle of your lawn at home…..these are mole hills...some could even Mike’s mole hills.

All this hard work digging and pushing soil around makes Mike a very hungry mole.

Generally most hard working moles love to eat earthworms. Big fat juicy, slimy wriggly, earth worms. But here’s a funny thing….Mike has always eaten earth worms….because….well….that’s what moles eat, but he REALLY doesn’t like them. It’s not that he doesn’t like them as worms you understand, some of his best friends are worms….he just doesn’t like the taste….and anyway, would you like to eat your best friend?...I don’t think so.

One fine morning Mike was doing some spring cleaning in his tunnel. You know the sort of thing…..dusting the walls, throwing out all the old takeaway wrappers, wiping down the work tops, sweeping up and getting rid of any old soil. 

As he pushed a huge lump of soil through the entrance hole and out onto the still wet grass above, he thought he would pop his head out into the daylight and have a look around….he hardly ever did that….. You see if you spend all your time in the tunnel, your eyes get used to the dark and the bright sunshine hurt your eyes.

When his head pushed through the soil into the daylight, there, right in front of him was a bird, a robin red breast.

Now, although Mike didn’t go up into the daylight very often, it didn’t mean he had no friends. As it happens this robin red breast was an old friend of Mikes and his name was Ralph.

“Good morning Mike” said the robin cheerfully “what are you up to today?”

“Oh….hello Ralph” Said Mike still blinking his eyes in the sunlight “I’m cleaning out my tunnel”

Mike and Ralph hadn’t seen each other in ages. Mike was always busy in his tunnel and Ralph….well, if you’ve ever seen a robin in your garden, you’ll know that they never stop….hopping around looking for food, flying this way and that….hardly stopping to take a breath.

 Anyway, they got to talking about the weather and how each of them was keeping when Mike said out of the blue….”You know what Ralph….I’ve realised I don’t like eating worms.” 

Now….If you know anything about moles you’ll understand that this is a really big thing….everyone knows that moles love to eat worms.

Ralph being a proud example of a fine upstanding Robin redbreast couldn’t understand this, because he loved to eat worms and every bird he knew liked to eat worms.

He looked at Mike long and hard.

“Look Mike….I’ve got to go and tend to my nest now but I’ll ask around and see if anyone can help you…TTFN. “ (That means ta ta for now in Robin speak) And off he flew leaving Mike sat on the edge of his mole hill.

“Bye” shouted Mike as he watched Ralph disappear into the distance. He turned around and pushed his way through the entrance hole and back into his tunnel.

The following day Ralph was hopping around in the next field eating some grass seeds….as robins do, when he heard a voice call out, “Hi Ralph” in a very quiet voice….it was Ronald. He was a brown and grey rabbit with big floppy ears hanging down over his eyes.

“Hi Ronald…how are you today?” asked Ralph still hopping around.

“I’m good thanks Ralph” said Ronald holding his stomach with both paws “I’ve had such a wonderful lunch today of juicy wild clover and scrummy dandelions that I think I’m fit to burst.”

Ralph looked at Ronald holding his big fat tummy and couldn’t help but laugh, although it did make him think.

“That’s brilliant Ron” said Ralph excitedly with his eyes wide open and hopping up and down….”You’ve just given me an idea. You sit there in the sun and let your lunch go down….I’ve got to go and see a friend of mine.”

Ralph leapt into the air as if he had a springs under his feet, flapping his little wings furiously. He flew as fast as he could into the next field where he could see a multitude of mole hills scattered all over the field.

“Okey dokey.” he thought, “How do I know which mole hill is Mike’s?”

He flew around the field for a couple of minutes trying to spot a moving-mole-hill because if the soil is moving around, you can be certain there’s a mole in there, but no luck…no moving-mole hills.

He soon realised the best thing to do would be to land. He could then hop around to each mole hill and see if Mike was there.

He landed at the edge of the field, next to a very large mole hill and hopped up to the top of the pile of soil where the entrance hole was. He stamped his feet as hard as he could and bent over to shout down the hole.

“Hello….helloooo….is there any mole there...Mike?”

No answer….on to the next mole hill….no answer again…after what seemed like dozens of mole hills, Ralph felt like giving up because he had been stamping his feet and shouting down mole-holes all day, when a rather sleepy mole popped his head out of a pile of soil….it was Mike…at last.

“Mike…There you are” chirped Ralph “I’ve been looking for you all day.”

“Sorry” said Mike while trying to stifle an extremely large yawn “I’ve been digging all day and I got so tired I fell asleep.”

“ I’ve been talking to Ronald rabbit” said Ralph excitedly “he gave me a brilliant idea….Instead of eating worms why don’t you eat what he eats…grass, wild clover, flowers, weeds…you’ll love them.”

“Mmmm” said Mike holding his chin and squinting at Ralph. He paused deep in thought for what seemed like ages but was probably only a few seconds.

“That sounds like a really good idea…but how will I get to pick them…I live in a tunnel.”

Now as every animal knows, the Robin red breast is a very smart and clever bird…Ralph held up his right wing.

“Don’t worry Mike, I’ve already thought of that….you live underground so when you’re digging in your tunnel and you come across the roots of a plant you want to eat, all you have to do is grab hold of the roots and give them a hard tug...The plant will fall into your tunnel and there you have it…dinner...what do you think?”

Mike curled up his nose and wiggled it from side to side….he always did that when he was thinking.

After quite a few wiggles he said “What a brilliant idea Ralph….I’m going to give it a try….right now.”

He stood up, turned round, put both his front paws together and dived right into the middle of the pile of soil…just like a fish diving into water. With a quick shake of his tail he had disappeared underground.

He ran up and down his tunnels finding roots of grass, clover, dandelions….lots of dandelions and of course weeds. 

It didn’t take him long to work out the best way to pull them down. If he grabbed the root with both paws and gave it a sharp tug….down they came…leaves and all.

It must have been a very strange sight in the field above….watching all sorts of plants, one after another, suddenly disappearing.

Well….you can imagine, after pulling all those plants down into his tunnel, Mike could hardly move, his tunnels were full of roots and plants. Although he was eating as quickly as he could, he soon realised he couldn’t carry on like this and would have to do something! ….But what?

Then….as if someone had turned a light on in his tunnel, he had an idea…a brilliant idea.

As soon as he finished the mouthful of dandelion leaves and wild clover he started to dig….he dug and dug for what seemed like hours….there...he was finished.

“I think that’s fantastic…even if I do say so myself.” said Mike out loud surveying his handy work.

He had dug out a large hollow in the side of the tunnel and it was perfect for storing his leaves and roots. “I think that’s probably the world’s first mole-made meal store” he said with a huge smile on his face “I’ve got to tell Ralph about this.”

He put all his roots and leaves in their new place and rushed along the tunnel to the entrance hole. He popped his head out into the daylight and amazingly Ralph was still there…

“Well?” said Ralph bobbing up and down and flapping his wings with excitement.

“I love it” shouted Mike with both paws in the air “I really like the taste of the roots and leaves and I’ve even dug a new place to keep them fresh. Thanks Ralph.”

“Don’t mention it Mike” said Robin bowing his head, “anything for a friend. “

So…If you are walking through a field and you see plants disappearing underground one after another…don’t panic…it’s only Mike the Mole having something to eat.

The End