zzle as to just what they were.

All are full of pores or layers of small cells, and some are quite
pretty from having a fringe about the cells like eyelashes. There are
others curiously shaped, looking like coral sprays, and here and there
they look like helmets; then there is another form that seems to have
long fingers running out, and is called "mermaid's gloves."

The form called "Venus flower-basket," large and basket-shaped, might
answer for a mermaid's work-basket, and hold her thimble, scissors, and
thread. You had better take care! A mermaid may be near this very
moment, and hear you laughing. And remember, she could spin you round
from one end of the sea to another, then leave you high and dry on a big
rock in the middle of the ocean.

Now, on what do sponges feed? Dear sakes, as if they fed on anything!
Yet they do. Although they branch and bunch out in the forms described,
yet they do not roam about, but only float or swim out as far as they
can stretch themselves while firmly fastened to a rock. Here they take
in specks or particles that float through the water; they pass through
the open pores of the body, and answer for food. The water constantly
passing through them serves to refresh and keep them round and healthy.

Here we come to a perfect thicket of sponges, and see the fishes playing
"tag" all around and about them. There! that sly little fish, like a
salt water pickerel, nipped the tail of that great clumsy
porpoise--porpus--so hard, I heard the big fish grunt. The teeth of a
pickerel are fearfully long and sharp.

Oh! Oh! What is that most beautiful thing we see shining with a faint,
sweet glow, down at the bottom of the sea? It is in plain sight, nestled
in the heart of a conch-shell. It is round, has a milk-like murkiness,
yet pinky, changing lights like tiny stars, that glint and gleam as you
look upon it.

Now believe me! Of all the treasures of the sea I have told you of or
shown you, this is far and away the most precious.

It is a pearl. Only once in a great while will so perfect and so
valuable a gem be found near my deep water home. And although we are not
so very far east, yet it would be called an "Orient," or an "Eastern
pearl."

Perhaps it has floated in its polished pink bed from a far eastern sea.
I told you a little while ago that I must explain what an oyster had to
do with Folks that sported too many jewels, and why it might be amused
at the sight.

Did you know that