Explore "The Worm" by Elizabeth Madox Roberts on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Dickie found a broken spade / And said he'd dig himself a well; / And then Charles took a piece of tin, / And I was digging with a shell.
Then Will said he would dig one too. / We shaped them out and made them wide, / And I dug up a piece of clod / That had a little worm inside.
We watched him pucker up himself / And stretch himself to walk away. / He tried to go inside the dirt, / But Dickie made him wait and stay.
His shining skin was soft and wet. / I poked him once to see him squirm. / And then Will said, "I wonder if / He knows that he's a worm."
And then we sat back on our feet / And wondered for a little bit. / And we forgot to dig our wells / Awhile, and tried to answer it.
And while we tried to find it out, / He puckered in a little wad, / And then he stretched himself again / And went back home inside the clod.