340 THE EARTHWORM. 



daily from neighbouring villages and distant towns. 

 People who could not attend purchased the snails 

 at a halfpenny each ; and there were persons who 

 made five shillings a day by the sale of them. As 

 this increase of the creature was not certainly to be 

 accounted for, some had the impudence to assert 

 that they had witnessed their fall from the clouds ; 

 and many declared their belief that some great 

 public or private misfortune was indicated by it. 

 The proprietor of the field being supposed not to 

 maintain the same sentiments as the commonalty 

 upon a political circumstance, which at that mo- 

 ment greatly agitated the country, it was considered 

 as a manifestation of heavenly displeasure, precur- 

 sive of malady, misfortune, death. However, au- 

 tumn came, these snails retired to their holes in 

 the banks, and the worthy man lived on, and long 

 may he live, esteemed and respected by all, unscathed 

 by snails or misfortunes. 



Little obnoxious to injury as this garden snail 

 appears to be, there is another creature, and that 

 a very important one in the operations of nature, 

 that is surrounded by dangers, harassed, pursued 

 unceasingly, and becomes the prey of all : the com- 

 mon earthworm (lumbricus terrestris). This ani- 

 mal, destined to be the natural manurer of the soil, 

 and the ready indicator of an improved staple, con- 

 sumes on the surface of the ground, where they 

 soon would be injurious, the softer parts of decayed 



