The mole named Clarence

If I hadn't been sick I would have given this declamation yesterday. The assignment was to write a fable. Here 'tis:

There was once a mole named Clarence. He was a fat, nearsighted (but not quite blind), ugly mole. And when he talked (as he was wont to do) he whistled. In all of these respects, he was quite like his other mole friends. None of them were particularly good looking, but that didn’t tend to matter. The only peculiar thing about him was that he was afraid of being underground. Human psychologists would say that he was claustrophobic, but the moles, who had never encountered such an illness, just thought that he was odd. One day Clarence had enough of being afraid, and he started to dig up rather than down. He did not spend long in this endeavour before he found himself, for the first time, above ground. It was ecstasy finally being in the fresh air, and for a few moments he was truly happy. Unfortunately, being so nearsighted he inadvertently wandered into the busy highway next to his hole. I’m sorry to announce that Clarence died. The moral of this story is that there are usually far worse things to be afraid of, so mole up.