“But they are so useful,” said Tommy Smith; “and they do so much good in the garden.”
“I don’t eat them all,” said the grass-snake, “and I don’t often go into gardens. Frogs and toads may be very useful, but perhaps if I didn’t eat some of them there would be too many of them in the world, and then, instead of being useful, they would be a nuisance. You see, I don’t eat them all. I leave just as many as are wanted, as long as you don’t kill them. But if you were to kill them too, then there would be too few.”
Tommy Smith thought a little, and then he said, “Are you obliged to eat them?”
“Of course I am,” said the grass-snake, “just as much as you are obliged to eat beef and mutton. You would think it very hard if you were to be killed just for eating your dinner. Then why should you want to kill me for eating mine? No, no; take my advice, and learn this lesson. Never kill one animal for eating another animal.”
Tommy Smith thought over this for a little, and it seemed to him to be right. “After all,” he thought, “the frog and the toad eat insects, and if no animal might eat any other animal, then a great many animals would die of starvation, and that would be very dreadful.” So he said to the grass-snake, “Well, Mr. Grass-Snake, I think you are right, and, if you come out of your bush, I will not try to catch you any more.” So the grass-snake came wriggling out again, and then Tommy Smith asked him why he had brought the frogs out of his mouth after he had eaten them.
“It was because you frightened me,” said the grass-snake. “You see, I wanted to get away, and, with three frogs inside me, I felt rather heavy. But as soon as the frogs were gone I was much lighter, and could go much quicker. Now don’t you think it was a very clever idea?”
“I don’t think it was a very clean idea,” said Tommy Smith; “but as you were frightened, perhaps you couldn’t help it. But now, Mr. Grass-Snake, are there any other clever things which you can do, and which are not quite so nasty? If there are, I should like to hear about them.”
“I can lay eggs,” said the grass-snake, “which is more than the adder can do.”
“But can you really lay them?” said Tommy Smith; “and do you make a nest for them, like a bird?”