See!" he added, lifting a splendid horned shell, "this is the Royal Triton.

On a rock I found him, twenty fathom down.

It was a family party, I think, for all around they lay, some clinging to the rock, some in the mud, some walking about.

I take one, two, three, put them in my pouch; up I go, and the others, they have a little more room, that's all." John's eyes glowed in his head.
"I--I should like to see that!" he cried.

"What is it like down there?
Do sharks come by,--swish! with their great tails?
And why don't they eat you, like the man in the geography book?
And is there really a sea-serpent?
And do the oysters open and shut their mouths, so that you can see the pearls, or how do you know which are the right ones?
"There are a great many things that I have thought about all my life," he said, "and nobody could ever tell me.