“That’s so,” said a thin little voice, as an earthworm cautiously lifted his head from the ground. “Has he gone?” he asked anxiously. “He’d eat me sooner than wink if he saw me. It is warm and damp this morning, that is why I am so near the surface. I don’t like dry or cold weather. My house——”
“Have you a house?”
Ruth had turned upon him in a second, full of questions as usual.
“Certainly I have a house. It is a row of halls, lined with glue from my own body. The walls are so firm they can’t fall in. Underground is really a delightful place to live, snug and soft, cool in Summer, warm in Winter. Lots to see, too. All the creeping, twining roots and stems reaching out for food, storing it away, or sending it up as sap to the leaves. The seeds waking up in the Spring, and hosts of meadow and wood people wrapped in egg and cocoon, who spend their baby days there. Quite a little world, I assure you. Of course I can’t see any of these things. I have no eyes.”
“Oh!” said Ruth, “how dreadful!”
“No, it is just as well. If I had eyes I might get earth in them. I go through the ground so much.”
“But isn’t that awful hard work?” asked Ruth, shutting her eyes to realize what having no eyes might mean.
“It isn’t hard when one has a nice set of bristles, as I have to help me along.” The earthworm was one who saw the best side of everything. “I am made up of more than a hundred rings,” he went on, “and on each are small stiff hair-like bristles so, though I have neither eyes, ears, hands, nor feet, I am quite independent. I can move very fast, and the slime that covers me keeps the earth from sticking to me. Do you know I am the only jointed animal that has red blood? It is so. I do no harm, either, to growing things, and I help to build the world. My tunnels let air into the ground and help to keep it loose. I also bring up rich soil from below, and lay it on the surface. I also——”
“Well, that’s enough,” interrupted the cicada, moving his wings impatiently. “I thought you wanted to see my relations?” he added to Ruth.
“So I do,” answered Ruth. “Where are they?”