ough,' said
they. 'Our family have built thousands of islands and long reefs, that
the sea can't get over, strong as it is.' That amused me immensely; but
I wouldn't believe it, and laughed more than ever."

"It does seem very strange," said Freddy, looking at the branch of coral
which he had brought out to examine.

"Doesn't it? and isn't it hard to believe? I used to go, now and then,
to see how the little fellows got on, and always found them hard at it.
For a long while there was only a little plant without leaves, growing
slowly taller and taller; for they always build upward toward the light.
By and by, the small shrub was a tree: flying-fish roosted in its
branches; sea-cows lay under its shadow; and thousands of jolly little
polypes lived and worked in its white chambers. I was glad to see them
getting on so well; but still I didn't believe in the island story, and
used to joke them about their ambition. They were very good-natured, and
only answered me, 'Wait a little longer, Friend Right.' I had my own
affairs to attend to; so, for years at a time, I forgot the
coral-workers, and spent most of my life up Greenland way, for warm
climates don't agree with my constitution. When I came back, after a
long absence, I was astonished to see the tree grown into a large
umbrella-shaped thing, rising above the water. Sea-weed had washed up
and clung there; sea-birds had made nests there; land-birds and the
winds had carried seeds there, which had sprung up; trunks of trees had
been cast there by the sea; lizards, insects, and little animals came
with the trees, and were the first inhabitants; and, behold! it _was_ an
island."

"What did you say then?" asked Freddy.

"I was angry, and didn't want to own that I was wrong; so I insisted
that it wasn't a real island, without people on it. 'Wait a little
longer,' answered the polypes; and went on, building broader and broader
foundations. I flounced away in a rage, and didn't go back for a great
while. I hoped something would happen to the coral builders and their
island; but I was so curious that I couldn't keep away, and, on going
back there, I found a settlement of fishermen, and the beginning of a
thriving town. Now I should have been in a towering passion at this, if
in my travels I hadn't discovered a race of little creatures as much
smaller than polypes as a mouse is smaller than an elephant. I heard two
learned men talking about diatoms, as they sailed to Labrador