A Day with the Sea Urchins. 69

Now young Eider had taken it into his head to have
a diving match on this very afternoon with some other
youngsters, members of the club, and he dived down
and down till his bewildered eyes caught sight of some
of the grand doings in and about the cavern. So
astonished was he that it was some minutes before
he could collect himself sufficiently to return to the
surface. He had been so long under water that his
comrades, who had given him up for lost, were already
wondering who would be elected as manager of the
club in his stead, when up he came, panting and
gasping, with barely breath enough left to scramble on
to a rock, where he had to lie for some minutes before
he could recover his scattered senses, and tell what had
happened to him.

Then, as his companions gathered round him, he
began to unfold the wonderful story of what he had