CARPENTERS, HARVESTERS 207 



CECIL. And vet these ants have two or three kinds of 

 ammunition, and it may be acid, alkali, both, or neither. 



KENNETH. I dropped a Carpenter on a snail and it 

 got quite a ride before it could grab a weed and pull itself 

 loose. 



ALBERT. I dropped a snail on the loose dirt at the 

 door of the Carpenters. It was twelve hours going seven 

 inches, and then stalled. It quit when it had used up all 

 its track material. 



KENNETH. Yes, the war tanks were not the first to 

 lay their tracks as they need them. The snail always does. 

 The tank can pick its track up and use it again, but the 

 poor snail can't. It hasn't a fair show. 



Carpenter Taking a Hide. 



CECIL. You see, the snail belongs in the water, but was 

 bound to be a land animal, and so has to wet its track 

 before it can crawl. The slime on the slug and snail may 

 also be used to keep other animals away. 



FLORENCE. Is the snail lazy, or just sleepy? 



CECIL. Sleepy, I guess. In the British Museum a snail 

 came to after being glued to a board four years, and then 

 lived two years longer. 



FLORENCE. As our ants won't come out, there's 

 nothing to talk about, so go on about the snail or something 

 else sow bugs. 



CECIL. As the sow bug is really a water animal, too, 

 like the shellfish, it has to have damp air to breathe. So it 



