"I know one, sure enough--the most charming one!" said one of the ants. "But I
am afraid we shall hardly succeed, for she is a queen!"
"That is nothing!" said the old folks. "Has she a house?"
"She has a palace!" said the ant. "The finest ant's palace, with seven hundred
passages!"
"I thank you!" said Mother Snail. "Our son shall not go into an ant-hill; if
you know nothing better than that, we shall give the commission to the white
gnats. They fly far and wide, in rain and sunshine; they know the whole forest
here, both within and without."
"We have a wife for him," said the gnats. "At a hundred human paces from here
there sits a little snail in her house, on a gooseberry bush; she is quite
lonely, and old enough to be married. It is only a hundred human paces!"
"Well, then, let her come to him!" said the old ones. "He has a whole forest
of burdocks, she has only a bush!"
And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole week before she
arrived; but therein was just the very best of it, for one could thus see that
she was of the same species.
And then the marriage was celebrated. Six earth-worms shone as well as they
could. In other respects the whole went off very quietly, for the old folks
could not bear noise and merriment; but old Dame Snail made a brilliant speech. Father Snail could not speak, he was too much affected; and so they
gave them as a dowry and inheritance, the whole forest of burdocks, and
said--what they had always said--that it was the best in the world; and if
they lived honestly and decently, and increased and multiplied, they and their
children would once in the course of time come to the manor-house, be boiled
black, and laid on silver dishes. After this speech was made, the old ones
crept into their shells, and never more came out. They slept; the young couple
governed in the forest, and had a numerous progeny, but they were never boiled, and never came on the silver dishes; so from this they concluded that
the manor-house had fallen to ruins, and that all the men in the world were
extinct; and as no one contradicted them, so, of course it was so. And the
rain beat on the dock-leaves to make drum-music for their sake, and the sun
shone in order to give the burdock forest a color for their sakes; and they
were very happy, and the whole family was happy; for they, indeed were so.
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