Tommy Smith looked at his hand. It had a thick yellowish fluid on it, which made it feel quite moist, and it was this fluid which had such a disagreeable smell. He was very much offended with the grass-snake, and he called out to him, “I think that is a very nasty trick to play, indeed.”
“I thought you wouldn’t like it,” replied the grass-snake, “and that is just why I did it. I wanted you to let me go, and, you see, you very soon had to. I always do that when anyone catches me; and, for my part, I think it is a very clever idea of mine.”
“But how do you do it?” asked Tommy Smith, whilst he stooped down and wiped his hand on the grass.
“Why, I hardly know,” said the grass-snake. “It comes naturally to me. Nobody can be cleaner or more well-behaved than I am, as long as I am treated properly. But when I am attacked, and my life is in danger, I do the only thing which I can do to protect myself. It is just as if you had a bottle of something which smelt so strongly that when you took out the cork and sprinkled it about, nobody could stay in the room. Now I have something which smells like that, only instead of keeping it in a bottle, I carry it under my skin, and when I want to use it, then, instead of taking out a cork, I just open my skin, and it comes out in little drops all over me.”
“Open your skin?” said Tommy Smith. “Why, how do you do that?”
“I don’t know how I do it,” said the grass-snake, “but I do do it.”
“Well,” Tommy Smith said, “however you do it, I think it is a very nasty habit. And besides, I shouldn’t have caught hold of you if you hadn’t told me that you had been eating frogs. I think it is very cruel of you to eat them. Why do you do it?”
“Why do I do it?” answered the grass-snake. “Why, because I feel hungry, to be sure. Why do you eat sheep, and oxen, and pigs, and ducks, and fowls, and turkeys?”
“Oh! but everybody eats them,” said Tommy Smith.
“Every snake eats frogs,” said the grass-snake. “We were made to eat them, and the frogs were made for us to eat. That is my theory. It is a good one, I feel sure, for it explains the facts and makes me feel comfortable.”