Sherman was the slowest of all the snails in Scotland. He was never in a hurry. He’d crawl along at his own slow pace, not worrying about how long it took to get somewhere. One morning Sherman decided that he wanted to go and visit his friend, Shelley. He began to crawl along the dirt path. Tall blades of dew-covered grass lined the path. Each drop of dew sparkled in the morning sunlight. Sherman looked at his reflection in some of the drops as he brushed against them. Some fell onto his shell and rolled down into his face, but he didn’t mind at all.

"Hurry up, Sherman!" called Wendy, the worm, from behind him. "You’re in my way!" She bumped right into him and tried to push him out of the way as she inched along.

Sherman smiled at her and said, "Good morning, Wendy. Isn’t it a nice day?"

"It was until you got in my way," she angrily answered, then continued on her journey.

Sherman kept crawling along. Soon he passed through a patch of tiny violets. "I love the color purple," he said as he crept slowly through them, enjoying the scent of each and every flower. He breathed deeply and smiled.

"Hurry up, Sherman!" shouted Perry, the potato bug, from behind him. "I’m in a hurry! Can’t you see that?" Sherman was taking up the whole width of the path. Perry couldn’t get past. "Sherman, if you don’t hurry up, I’ll have to crawl over the top of you."

Sherman ignored him and continued to smell the violets. Perry moved his little legs quickly and crawled onto Sherman’s shell. He curled up into a ball and rolled down, over Sherman’s neck and between his antennas to the ground. "Good morning, Perry. Isn’t it a nice day," Sherman said. Perry didn’t even answer. He uncurled himself and hurried off.

Sherman crawled along and came upon some moss-covered rocks. He loved how the soft, emerald green moss felt on his clammy, moist skin. It protected his shell from scraping on the hard rock. Just then he heard, "Hurry up, Sherman! You’re in my way." He turned his head slightly and saw Sawyer, the spider. He was holding up four of his eight long, spindly legs, trying to crawl over Sherman, who was just too big. "If you don’t move, I’ll have to climb over the rock and then I’ll be tired. Hurry up and move," he demanded.

Sherman wasn’t in a hurry. He was enjoying the moss. Sawyer got so angry because Sherman wouldn’t move out of his way, that he jumped over him and stopped right in front of his face. He said, "Why don’t you go faster? You’re always in the way."

Sherman smiled and said to the spider, "Good morning, Sawyer. Isn’t it a nice day?"

Sawyer shook his head and ran off over the rocks.

After he’d followed the path out of the rocks, Sherman found himself going through a patch of clover. It was in full bloom and bees were humming as they flew from one puffy, pink flower ball to the other. Sherman smiled as he made his way slowly through it. His antenna stuck up over the top of the clover, getting into Bernadette, the bee’s way. "Hurry up, Sherman! Get out of my way. You’re antenna keep bumping into me and knocking the pollen off my legs," she grumpily told him.

Sherman looked up at the hovering bee. "Good morning, Bernadette. Isn’t it a nice day?"

Bernadette said, "Oh, never mind," and flew off to another patch of fragrant clover.

Sherman smiled and moved along, even slower than before. Eventually he came to a fallen tree trunk that was hollow. He climbed into it then crawled along inside. There were a few ants coming from the opposite direction carrying bits of leaves and small blades of grass. They couldn’t get past Sherman. "Hurry up, Sherman!" one of the ants called out. "Get our of our way. We’re taking these leaves to our nest."

Sherman looked down at the tiny ants carrying the leaves that seemed to be much bigger than the ants were. "Good morning ants. Isn’t it a nice day?"

"Well, we’ll never find out, will we? You won’t hurry up so we’ll never get out of this log," another ant said rudely.

Sherman smiled at them and continued through the log. The ants had to lay flat against the side of the log until he went past. His antenna knocked some of the leaves out of their arms. The ants were very angry with Sherman, but he just went merrily on his way.

Soon he arrived at his friend, Shelley, the slug’s home. Shelley lived on the side of a flowerpot. It held bright red geraniums, which were growing in some deep brown earth. "Good morning, Shelley. Isn’t it a nice day?"

Shelley slowly moved down the side of the flowerpot to where Sherman, the snail, stood. "Come on, Sherman. Stay a while. You don’t have to hurry off, do you?" he asked.