and cold. It was no longer possible to live in the
cave if the sea was to wash through it like this. But if only there were
some barrier to keep out the stormy waves they could still live in their
beloved cave. Saint Gudwall fell upon his knees and prayed for
help,--prayed for some defense against the winter waves.

And what do you think happened? The dwellers in the sea were kinder than
the sea itself. The little fish who live safely in the angriest waves
were sorry for the big men who were so powerless in the face of this
danger. From the sea caves far under the island's foot, from the beds of
seaweed and the groves of coral, from the sandy bottom of the ocean
fathoms deep below, the fish came swimming in great shoals about
Gudwall's island. And each one bore in his mouth a grain of sand. They
swam into the shallow water just outside the cave where Gudwall had
lived, and one by one they placed their burdens on the sandy bottom. One
by one they paused to see that it was well done, then swiftly swam away,
to return as soon as might be with another grain of sand. All day long a
procession of fish, like people in line at a ticket office, moved
steadily up to the shallows and back again. So by night a little bar of
sand had begun to grow gradually before the entrance to the cave.

Now Saint Gudwall and his pupil were shivering on the top of the cliff,
and looking off to sea, when the pupil caught his master's arm. "What is
that down there in the water?" he said, pointing to a little brown spot
peering above the waves.

"I know not," answered the Saint; "what seems it to be, brother?"

"I have been watching it," said the other, "and I think it grows. Look!
it is even now higher than when first you looked; is it not so?"

And sure enough, Gudwall saw that ever so little at a time the brown
patch was growing and spreading from right to left. Grain by grain the
sand bar rose higher and higher till it thrust bravely above the
blueness a solid wall extending for some distance through the water in
front of the cave. Against this new breakwater the surf roared and
foamed in terrible rage, but it could not pass, it could no longer swoop
down into the cavern as it had done before.

"The Lord has given us a defense," said Gudwall with a thankful heart.
And then his eye caught sight of a great bluefish swimming back into
the deep sea. "It is the fish who have built us the wall," he cried.
"Blessed be the fish who have this day h