"Sailors?"

"Yes, they are indeed. As soon as they come out of the egg, they hoist a
great sail and put out. It's only when they grow older, if they haven't
been eaten by that time, that they settle down as decent mussels with
shells upon them and philosophy in their constitutions."

"Don't let us talk about children," said the reed-warbler. "It always
upsets my wife so. Tell us now how you found your way to this pond."

"Ah," said the mussel, "that comes of a peculiarity I possess of
becoming furious when any one sticks something between my shells. I
don't know if I told you that I possess that peculiarity?"

"You've told me several times," answered the reed-warbler. "I shall
never forget it; I shall take care, be sure of that."

"Mind you do," said the mussel. "You know, it was one of your sort that
managed my removal."

"A reed-warbler?"

"I don't exactly know if it was a reed-warbler. I can't see very well
outside the water.... Good-day to you, good-day to you, Goody Cray-Fish!
I can always see you!... And to me one bird is much like another.
However, it must have been a gull. Well, I was sitting at the bottom and
yawning, as I usually do. Just above me was a little roach. Then,
suddenly, splash came the gull and seized the roach. He swooped down at
such a pace that he plumped right to the bottom. One of his little toes
stuck between my shells and I pinched. The gull tugged and pulled, but I
am strong when I become furious and I held tight. He was the stronger,
in a way, nevertheless. For he pulled me off the bottom and then I went
up through the water and into the air."

"Why, it's quite a fairy-tale!" said the reed-warbler.

"We flew a good distance," the mussel continued, "high above the fields
and woods. I could just peep out, for my shells were ajar because of the
bird's toe. We lost the fish on the way, but I held on, however much the
gull might struggle and kick. Of course, I did not mean to hang on for
ever, you know, but I wanted to have my say as to where we should
alight. Suppose I had been dropped into a tall tree and had to hang
there and wait until a student came and got engaged...."

[Illustration]

"He would have come all right," said the reed-warbler. "I've travelled a
great deal, but I have never been anywhere that there wasn't a student
who got engaged."

"Well, in my case, it would have been rather uncertain," said the
mussel. "And so, when I looked down and saw that there was blu