The little bags of lime help to grind or change the worm’s food in some way, not yet well known.
The soft body of the worm will stretch like India-rubber. It will hold a great deal of food.
Now you see that Mr. Worm is not alike at both ends. One end has the head, the stomach, the parts that serve for a brain, and a heart.
The hooks begin at the fourth ring behind the head. Look at the worm when he lifts his head, and you will see his mouth.
The tail end has very strong hooks with which to hold fast to his cell. This tail end is also his trowel, or mould, a tool with which this poor, ugly worm helps to build the world.
Ah! now I have told you a great thing, a strange thing. Is it true that the feeble, useless worm helps to build the world? Where is that boy who knew so much about worms?
But before you hear how the worm helps to build the world, let us go back to what the boy said. He said, “If you cut the worm in two, each end will go off and be a whole worm.”
That is not true of the worm. When the worm is cut in two, the parts do not die at once. As there are hooks and rings on each part, they each can move off.
It is thought that if the fore part is left safe, the cut can close up, and the worm can still live. A new tail may grow upon the front part, as Mr. Crab’s new claw or eye-peg grows.
The hind part cannot live and grow. It cannot get a new mouth or heart, so it can take no food, and have no blood. It soon dries up and dies.