Seeing a clump of especially large cherries directly overhead, the little girl reached for them. Her hand touched something which was dark-green in color and very slimy.
With a squeal of dismay, Veve pulled back. The pail of cherries nearly dropped from her hand. But she managed to save it.
“O-oh, see this horrid creature on the tree!” she exclaimed. “Ugh! It gives me the creeps.”
The other Brownies and Miss Gordon, who were picking close by, came over to look.
“Why, it’s only a harmless little slug,” the Brownie Scout leader laughed. “One frequently finds them amid the foliage.”
Miss Gordon plucked the leaf which the creature had been eating. Half of the soft leaf tissue had been nibbled away, leaving ribs and veins exposed.
“Orchard owners control slugs by spraying with arsenate of lead,” she told the girls. “Somehow, this fellow escaped.”
“I don’t want to pick on this tree any more,” Veve said.
“’Fraid cat!” teased Sunny Davidson.
“I am not!” Veve denied. “I just don’t like slugs.”