Well, and what harm? Nuts are very wholesome food, I am sure. And don't you lay up any store of provisions for the winter, then?
TOUCHMENOT.
Not I, indeed! I am better employed in the winter than in eating. I sleep all the winter, Mr. Nutcracker! When the weather gets a little colder, perhaps in a few days, I shall creep into my snug nest which I have made under the roots of a great tree. There I shall roll myself up, in my bed of dry leaves, and when once fairly asleep, I am safe till next spring. Nothing can make me wake up. What a fool I should be to trouble myself about collecting a quantity of food for the winter, when I am sound asleep all the time!
BRUSH.
And what do you live upon, when you are awake, if it isn't an unfair question?
TOUCHMENOT.
Oh, I am not very particular. Almost anything will do at a pinch. I often make a meal upon roots and vegetables, when I can find nothing else. But I like animal food much better, such as insects, worms, snails, bird's eggs, frogs, mice, and now and then I dine upon a snake when I can contrive to catch him. Well! what's the matter now? What do you jump up into the tree for?
BRUSH.
Oh, shocking! I never heard anything so dreadful in my life! I beg your pardon. I mean, I should not like to dine upon snake at all.
TOUCHMENOT.