“I begin to feel rather friendly toward the snail, the voracious animal that eats our flowers,” said Jules.
“I do not care to make you friendly with it. Let us make war on it since it ravages our gardens; it is our right; but do not let us disdain to learn from it, for it has many beautiful things to teach us. To-day I will tell you of its eyes and nose.”
CHAPTER LXXI
THE SPIRAL SNAIL
“WHEN the snail crawls, it bears aloft, as you know, four horns.”
“Horns that come out and go in at will,” added Jules.
“Horns that the animal turns every way,” said Emile, “when you put the shell on the live coals. Then the snail sings be-be-be-eou-eou.”
“Stop that cruel play, my child. The snail does not sing; it is complaining, in its own way, of the fiery tortures. Its slime, coagulated by the heat, first swells and then shrinks, and the air that escapes by little puffs produces that dying wail.
“In one of La Fontaine’s fables, where there are so many good things about animals, he tells us that the lion, wounded by a horned animal,
“Straight banished from his realm, ’t is said,