One day, ababy snail (蜗牛) found that he had to carry a big and heavy shell atany time. He was confused (困惑的), so he went up to hismother and asked, "Why was I born with a shell that grew so hard andheavy?" His mother said, "Because we don't have bones to hold us up.We can only move slowly, so we need a shell to protect us."
The babysnail asked again, "The caterpillar (毛毛虫) has no bones, and she can'tmove quickly. Why can she live without a shell?" The mother snailanswered, "That's because a caterpillar will become a butterfly. She canfly high into the sky. The sky can protect her." The baby snail had onemore question, "But the earthworm (蚯蚓) moves likeus. He has no bones and he won't turn into a butterfly. Why doesn't he carry ahard and heavy shell?" His mother said, "He can dig a hole and hidein the ground, and then the earth can protect him.
The babysnail then cried, "We are so poor! We have no protection from the sky orfrom the ground!" His mother smiled at him, "That's why we have ashell. My dear, imagine that if we don't have shells, what will happen to us?Hot sun will dry out our bodies and we'll have nowhere to sleep. What's worse,we'll die in the heavy rain. How terrible it is! We don't depend on the sky orthe ground for protection. We should depend on ourselves.
