Scott Pickens, age 9, of Lima, N.Y., for his question:

That happens when a snail gets too big for his shell?

Mr. slowpoke never grows too big for the shell on his back. All through his lazy life he is just the right size to crawl inside and use it as a hide away house. His moist body has a special layer of skin shat oozes stuff to build the shell bigger and bigger. As he grows he adds new edges around the bottom edge of his shell, and his hide away house grows bigger with him.

The snail hatches from a tiny egg with a fragment of glassy shell upon his back It soon turns dark and new material is added to form a roomy hump shaped in a graceful pattern of whorling curves. The snail eats his shell making materials with his food. His body separates than and lets them ooze through his skin. This moist material soon drle8 into an extra rim of crisp snail shell.