122 Hardy Plants for Cottage Gardens 



heap is the natural abode of the mole, who soon found a rich 

 harvest in the fare I had unwittingly spread for it. While a 

 discreet number of moles may be desirable, when it comes to 

 daily tunneling under tender annuals, so that their roots are 

 lifted high in air, where the hot sun makes short work of their 

 young life, I prefer grubs to moles. At first I watched these 

 loose elevations of the earth quite helplessly, then I went out 

 four or five times a day to crowd down the earth, a process al- 

 most as destructive as the hot sun had been and then I de- 

 cided that between the mole and the grub, that would nip one 

 plant and pay swift penalty, the odds were in favor of the 

 grub, and I signed the death-warrant of the mole. 



With subtlety and craft I began to study the mole. I took 

 a comfortable chair into the garden and sat guard for the 

 better part of several days. I found it to be a true rustic, 

 breakfasting before six, dining about eleven, and supping at 

 five. One could almost set the clock by its regular habits. 

 It is curious how gazing steadily at anything semi-hypnotizes 

 one, and how easily the imagination is aroused. I watched 

 the ground until things wavered, but one day it was more than 

 a waver but was it ? no yes, yes, there was an unmistakable 

 crepitation of the loose brown earth, and the long-sought 

 villain was stealthily moving beneath it. But what was the 

 good of that knowledge? I had nothing at hand to capture 

 it, and though I tiptoed lightly away, and secured a weapon I 

 watched in vain that day for any further upheaving of the 

 earth. Next day at eleven I occupied a reserved seat in the 

 front row, ready for the performance to begin. My chosen aid 

 was a potato-digger, which looks like a hay fork of five tines 

 curved at right angles. Again things wavered, and I trembled 

 with excitement. I had supposedly laid aside my tigerhood 

 thousands of years ago, but at the sight of that uncertain mov- 

 ing earth the old ferocity leaped to the front. I quivered as 



