Moles do a lot of good work for the farmer. Not only were they ploughing and ploughing and ploughing the soil--over and over again--thousands of centuries before man came along to plant seed in it, but they are all the time eating, among other things, destructive worms and insects in the soil. They work all over the world, that is to say, in the upper half of it--the Northern Hemisphere; and there's where the biggest half of the land is, if I haven't forgotten my geography. WONDERFUL LITTLE MACHINES ON FOUR LEGS Closely related to the moles are the shrews--quaint little mouse-like creatures with long, pointed heads and noses that they can twist about almost any way in hunting their meals and finding out other things in this big world that concern them. On these funny, long noses they have whiskers like a pussy-cat; and that helps, too, when you want to keep posted on what's going on around you. Like the moles the shrews are found all over the Northern Hemisphere. What is known as the "long-tailed shrew," is the very smallest of our relations among the mammalia. Why, they're no bigger than the end of a man's little finger; and the smallest watch _I_ ever heard of was a good deal bigger than that. Yet, inside these wee bodies is as much machinery as it takes to run any other mammal--an elephant, say. [Illustration: THE COMMON AND THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW] The shrews get around very fast, considering their size; and they're on the go all the time. I never saw such busy-bodies; nosing about in the old leaves and dead grass and under logs and boring into loose loam, punky wood, decayed stumps--anywhere you'd be likely to find a worm, a grub, a beetle, or a slug. Hard workers, these shrews, but _so_ quarrelsome! When two Mr. Shrews meet there's pretty sure to be trouble. They're regular little swashbucklers among themselves; and--the queerest thing, until you know why--they don't seem to be afraid even of cats. Fancy telling Cousin Mouse that! But it isn't because the shrews _wouldn't_ be afraid if the cats got after them, but because cats always let shrews alone. They don't taste good! [Illustration: THE CILIATED SHREW] Shrews are so nimble on their tiny feet and so quick of hearing, they are very hard to catch. And please don't try! You simply _can't_ tame them, and in spite of the fact they're so fierce and bold at home--among their own kind--they're easily frightened to death. A shock of fear and that wonderful little heart engine of theirs stops short--never to go again. MR. MOLE'S PAWS AND HOW HE WORKS THEM