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 
