Along Shining Shores 81 



spot on his big fat brown breast. A single 

 shot had taken effect. 



He fell just at Mrs. Fiddler's dooi , and left 

 a drop of blood in her front yard. When I 

 lifted him, the fiddler emerged, with three 

 trembling little fiddlers clinging to her skirts, 

 smiled and thanked me. And then, seeing a 

 baby snail toddling slowly along the road in 

 front of her house, she ran out, grabbed him 

 by the throat, broke his neck, tore him into 

 bits with her big cruel claw, and handed the 

 pieces to her hungry children. 



"It's the way of life," I thought, grimly. 

 " Life feeds on life ; the man on fish and ani- 

 mal; the bird on the fiddler; the fiddler on 

 the snail ; the snail on the worm ; the worm 

 on the cabbage, and the cabbage on the vege- 

 tarian!" 



And, when we get down to the last cell- 

 life, no eye can tell the difference between 

 the germ that will grow into a vegetarian and 

 the one that will grow into a cabbage. 



6 



