. Shells and sea-life. make their homes wherethey will be pretty sure to get it fresh at leasttwice a day. -. But I soon saw that this place where the waveswere churning air was no place for me; so with afew bold snaps I shot off for deeper water. I wasnone too quick, for just as I had made up mymind to move, I caught sight of a big-mouthedcreature, that men call a fish, coming straightfor me. He doubtless knew that the incoming tide wouldstartle a great many helpless crea-tures like myself, and he had come,ready to swallow us as we weretrying to make our escape. Luckily for me, his attention
. Shells and sea-life. make their homes wherethey will be pretty sure to get it fresh at leasttwice a day. -. But I soon saw that this place where the waveswere churning air was no place for me; so with afew bold snaps I shot off for deeper water. I wasnone too quick, for just as I had made up mymind to move, I caught sight of a big-mouthedcreature, that men call a fish, coming straightfor me. He doubtless knew that the incoming tide wouldstartle a great many helpless crea-tures like myself, and he had come,ready to swallow us as we weretrying to make our escape. Luckily for me, his attention wasFigure 23. tumcd at that instant to a fat wormwhich seemed to be swimming just in front ofme. His mouth closed on the worm, and in aninstant more he was shooting upward as if he hadbeen pulled by a string, and I never saw himagain. Perhaps some of you may know why hedisappeared so suddenly, and can guess what be-came of him. I was dreadfully scared, for there were otherfishes all about, and I am sure some of my poor. THE STORY OF THE PECTEN. 65 brothers did not escape, but I did, and in a fewmoments I was down in the deep water whereeverything is quiet and still. That night, before I went to sleep, I spun somestrong, silky threads with my one finger, and fas-tened myself to the stem of a great seaweed, sothat I would be safe even if a great storm shouldarise. You can see the little notch in one of myshells, where I put out my finger and made fastmy threads. It is just under one of the ears ofthe shell, and you can find it in Figure 23. Well, I lived down in the water for a good manymonths, and I saw many things that you wouldlike to see. There was a whole bed of my brothersand sisters around me, and all sorts of funnythings used to come to visit us. Sometimes a bigjelly-fish would swim by, looking for all the worldlike a glass umbrella. We seldom spoke to thejellies, for they seemed rather vain of their longtrains, and we did not care to encourage them. But they had some lit
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectmollusk, bookyear1901
