The Life of the Weevil 
end. Famine threatens; all save one must 
die. 
Soon indeed the aspect of things changes. 
One of the grubs, the one occupying the 
central position in the pea, grows faster than 
the others. He has hardly begun to be 
larger than his competitors when these cease 
to eat and refrain from digging any farther. 
They lie motionless and resigned; they die 
the gentle death which reaps unconscious 
lives. They disappear, wasted away to 
nothing. They were so tiny, the poor 
victims! Henceforth the whole pea belongs 
to the sole survivor. But what has 
happened, to produce this desolation around 
the privileged one? For lack of a relevant 
answer, I will propound a suggestion. 
In the centre of the pea, more gently 
stewed than the rest by the sun’s chemistry, 
may there not be an infant-pap, a pulp of a 
quality better-suited to the delicate organs 
of a grub? Here perhaps, stimulated by 
tender, highly flavoured and sweeter food, 
the stomach becomes more vigorous and fit 
to cope with food less easily digested. A 
baby is fed on milk before it receives the 
basin of broth and the bread of the able- 
246 
