Wonderfully fine and soft, beyond words, was his smoke-grey, plush-like coat, and by special providence the fur of this coat did not grow in just one direction like that of most furred animals. Instead, you might stroke it either way, up or down. For this reason Star Nose was able to travel backward or forward with equal speed. So strong was Star Nose that he could upheave a long section of the hardest earth, no matter if a steam roller had gone over it. Sometimes, when travelling swiftly through one of his subway passages, his velvety coat would become caked with soil; then he would give himself a quick shake which sent it flying from his back, thus cleaning his fur. It is never well to judge anything by mere appearances, so, although Star Nose had tiny bits of eyes and no visible ears, he was by no means a dullard. Nature, ever helpful, had shown him exactly the way to take care of himself, and, unlike his cousins, the plain little shrews, Star Nose wore upon the tip end of his small pointed snout a pink star. This star was not given him for just an ornament; it helped him wonderfully in finding his way about underground and, besides, he used it in rooting out deep holes, precisely as a pig uses its flattened snout. Star Nose spent most of his life digging, and for this very reason his claws, instead of curving inward when shut, as do those of most other animals, were arranged in quite a queer fashion--they curved back. This was a great help to him, for he could use them precisely as though they were little spades to toss aside the dirt out of his road. So quickly did he work that, if you but turned your head away for a minute, by the time you looked again Star Nose had dug a hole and was out of sight. Of all the burrowing tribes which live below ground Star Nose was perhaps the prize digger. He was not content to dig out a burrow for himself a little distance below ground and then sit still in its doorway as did his neighbours, the gopher family. No, nothing would suit Star Nose but a regular city subway, with such straight streets that you wondered how, with his half blindness, he could ever manage to dig them. In addition to this, there were spacious chambers, passages, and regular galleries--long roads which led to his feeding places. You would soon have lost your way in such a maze, but Star Nose never did. He lived in a great bank, and the entrance to his home he had concealed beneath a bush where you would never have seen it, so deftly was it hidden. There was just a little spot raised in the earth which led straight into a large chamber. Five passageways descended from this, connected by galleries lower down, and from this ran many subways and long roads which were worn quite hard and smooth by the passage of old Star Nose, the hermit mole. It was very well for him that these walls were solid, otherwise his whole home might have come tumbling in upon him during a storm.