Closer examination of the animals' anatomy revealed that thesea slugs had a large part of their penis coiled up in a spiral inside their bodies, which they would then use to replenish their missing part.
His chance to flee their Dickensian gloom comes with the appearance of a magic peach in the garden: he crawls inside, where he finds a posse of insect friends, and travels by air and sea to an improbably benign New York.