The Story of the Mole and the making of Roads.
WHEN the world was made, there were no roads and no pathways. It was very difficult to get about from one place to another.
Seeing this, God ordered all the animals to come and work together and straighten out paths and make roads. All the animals came and worked as they were commanded. Only the mole stayed away, so God asked him why he had not come, when all the others had?
"I do not want any roads and ways, for they are of no use to me," he replied; "I burrow under the earth and there I spend my life."
"So shall it always be henceforth," said God, "and thou shalt not be able to make thy little hills on roads or highways, and it shall not be a sin to kill thee."
And so it has remained to this day. No mole-hill has ever been seen on any public road. The mole cannot make them except in fields and meadows.
Whoever destroys a mole-hill gets a peculiar wart on his hand. In order to get rid of it he must pass over it seven times the paw (the claws) of a mole.
