ll the boughs reaching the surface were fringed with
good-sized oysters. We gathered those we could reach; and looking down
into the clear water below the trees, I saw that the rocks at the bottom
were thickly covered with those nutritive shell-fish, in every stage of
growth, many of the size of a shilling and even smaller. Here, at all
events, was an unfailing supply of food; and, encouraged by the
discovery, we hoped that we should obtain a still further variety.

Having filled our pockets and handkerchiefs, we hurried back to the
tree, down which Harry was descending with a load of cocoa-nuts. On our
showing him the oysters, he observed that they were too small to be of
much use, and volunteered at once to dive to the bottom and obtain some
larger ones. We accordingly returned to the bay; when, stripping off
his clothes, he at once plunged in, and soon brought a number of large
oysters to the surface in his handkerchief, which he had taken down with
him for the purpose.

"Oh, there are not enough," he said,--"I will soon get some more;" and
again he plunged down. We could see him at the bottom, working away
with his knife. I could not have remained half the time beneath the
surface.

While he was thus engaged, I caught sight of a dark object at the
entrance of the bay. Horror seized me, for I knew it to be a shark. I
shrieked out to Harry to return. Tom also saw the fearful monster, and,
with a presence of mind for which I should not have given him credit, he
took up one of the larger oysters and sent it skimming along the
surface, in the way boys are accustomed to make "ducks and drakes" with
pieces of slate on a calm day by the sea-side. I immediately followed
his example, hoping thus to distract the attention of the shark.

At length, though it seemed a long time, Harry came up, and only then
hearing our cries, swam rapidly to the shore. We held out our hands to
help him, and I breathed more freely when his feet touched the dry
ground. A moment longer, and he would have been lost; for the shark,
darting forward, almost ran his snout against the bank in his eagerness
to seize his prey; then, startled by our cries, and the oysters we
continued to heave at him, he suddenly turned round, whisking the water
into our faces with his tail.

Harry took the matter very coolly. "It is not the first time I have had
a shark dart at me," he observed; "but I have generally had a companion
who has attacked the c