or us;
they run to and fro as if they had something to do, and they certainly
know of a wife for our little snail!"

"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 happ