Ervin Newhard, age 7, of Allentown, for his question:

How do worms get under the ground?

Every little pink worm has a comfortable burrow for himself in the ground. Yet he has no spade to dig his underground home. He has no spade‑shaped hands as the mole has. How does he do it?

Actually Mr. Pinky uses the simplest trick in the world ‑ though it may not seem very attractive to us. The smart little fellow eats his burrow. Instead of a shovel full of dirt he takes up a mouthful of dirt. And he eats all the dirt that comes out of the hole.

You might wonder why little Pinky doesn’t burst from eating all that dirt. Well, it passes through his body and out the other end. The curly worm castings you see on the lawn. are made from dirt which the worm ate to make a burrow.

Dirt of course cannot be digested, oven by a worm. But it contains all sorts of food scraps which may be food for the worm. Insects, eggs, and larvae, bits of vegetation, old leaves are selected by the worm's insides and digested before the useless dirt is cast away.