Once upon a time there was a snail. It was very slow and it wasn't very pretty. It left a kind of ooze behind wherever it would go. Little children cried, "Ooooooo, yich!" as it passed them by. Little girls ran the other way, and little boys stomped on it. It kept coming back.

One day, as the snail lay low beneath a clump of grass under a shady tree, a cat came along and curled up beside it unknowingly.

"What is that damp spot?" the cat thought and turned to lick its fur dry by the side of the snail.

"Ooooooo!" said the snail as the cat's rough tongue rolled it over on the dirt.

Ooze oozed and the cat said, "Darn!" and licked some more as the snail wound round and round.

"Something is definitely wrong," the cat thought as dampness spread down toward its leg and it stretched to lick its limb.

"What in the world is wrong with him?" thought the snail as it tumbled by and by.

"That's it!" thought the cat as slime covered its back.

The cat rolled over and the snail squished.

"Oh no!" said the cat as it slid down the hill. "What happened here?"

And the snail said, "Oh dear. I've made a mess again."

The cat shook herself off at the foot of the hill and gazed back up at him. "Please stop that," it said, wearily licking its skin, "I'm running out of spit."

The snail regrouped and sat benignly by the tree. "I'll try not to ooze if you'll try not to step on me."

"I didn't step on you," the cat replied indignantly. "That was my tongue."

"The heck you say! You rolled over on me."

"I couldn't help it," the cat responded penitently. "It bothered me."

"Maybe you could live at the bottom of the hill and I could live at the top," the snail said thoughtfully. "I think I see a tree down there."

The cat turned hopefully. "Okay," it purred. "You can have the penthouse and I'll have the basement floor."

So the snail and the cat lived happily, until one day a little boy came along.

"Oooooooo! A snail," he cried and stomped it viciously.

Ooze ran down and the cat frowned and meowed piteously.

"Oooooooo! A cat," he cried and ran down to grab it by the tail and swirled it round and round.

As the cat fell dizzily into the ooze and twirled on the ground helplessly, a little girl came down.

"Ooooooo! What you are doing to the snail and the cat?" she cried. "They were living so happily."

The little boy turned and walked away, thinking of the braids and the ribbons in her hair, then suddenly turned and ran up the hill.

"Ooooooo!" she cried and ran away.

And the little boy chased her, and the snail and the cat sighed, and the ooze dried, at least for that day.

And the clump of grass thought, “I just have absolutely nothing to say,” and the tree said, “I hope they all go away.”