Murgatroyd, the Master Holer.

Hallo! How are you or rather where are you? Just a minute while I come a bit closer. I don't see very well; it's all that living underground. Ah! that's better I can see you now. Yes, you are quite right I am a mole and my name is Murgatroyd.

Moles are very handsome creatures. We have dark fur that looks just like velvet. Our eyes are small but our snouts are big. We have large front paws with long claws, all useful for digging! That's what we do best.

I live underground with a group of other moles. We call ourselves Moles United. Not that we are good at football but we rather like the name. Our underground home has lots of rooms that are linked by long tunnels , that way we each have our own space and we don't get in each other's way!

Now and then we dig through the surface of the earth. Our heads pop out and we surround these holes with little mounds of earth. What makes our life exciting is that we can do this anywhere there is earth. We come up in parks. Our favourites are the ones where children hold their birthday parties. You never know what you can find as a treat! We break surface on lawns. Not a good idea really as gardeners don't like us much and this can mean trouble. We come out near rivers where we have lots of friends. Nice to spend time with them and exchange news.

The adventure I am about to relate was one of our best. Although we don't see well there is nothing wrong with our hearing. We had been digging underground for some considerable time. When we rested from our labours we became aware of interesting noises just above our heads. There was the sound of wheels and a strange clicking noise as something hit metal. We could hear human voices and some of them sounded angry. All very puzzling! We decided to tunnel up and see for ourselves.

Early one morning we broke through the earth. The sight that greeted us was amazing. Large areas of grass, some sand, some hillocks and dips, and quite a few water holes. Small chariots filled with large bags containing long metal poles. Humans selected one of these poles and with it hit a small white object on the ground. They tried to place that small object in a tiny hole. Yes, you are quite right, we had come up on a golf course. Although fascinated by all this activity we could see immediately what the problem was. The holes they were using were far too small and this had to be the reason for their anger.

We went back underground and held a summit meeting. Well, everyone else has one, why not us? As champion hole diggers we felt we could show them a thing or two. What they needed were bigger holes; that would solve their problem. I was a great idea. We studied the layout carefully, found out where all the holes were and made bigger ones near them. We added a few more for fun.

We waited, close to the surface, for the thanks that were bound to come our way. We were not prepared for the wave of anger that came instead. Our holes were all filled in and we were banned from ever showing our snouts there again. We were sad about it as we were only trying to be helpful, but, we had to admit, we'd had a great time and to us that's what mattered!

Copyright Jacqueline Hastings 2009