“Don’t you know?
“‘A grasshopper sat on a sweet-potato vine,
Sweet-potato vine, sweet-potato vine,
A great big elephant came up behind,
And knocked him off that sweet-potato vine.’
“I’m not sure about the story; it’s just possible that it may be taken from the New York paper, but, anyway, we believe it, and often laugh at the grasshopper.”
“What do you eat?” asked Zed.
“Anything I find, almost. Flies are not at all particular. We can enjoy anything that any one does. Our mouths are hollow tubes, through which we suck whatever we wish to eat. This is a very convenient way.”
“You have enemies,” remarked Zoo. “We have just been calling on a spider who is longing for a taste of some of you.”
“You don’t say so!” cried the fly. “She is not very near here, is she? Those spider-webs are the great torment of our lives. I have had several friends caught and eaten by the spiders. The way they wind their fine, yet strong threads about one, is something remarkable. I know a pretty good verse about them, too: