76 A Day with the Sea Urehins.

could not leave “the shell” lying there, so each taking
gently hold of it, they floated up till they came to a
little cavern in the rock, with a floor of soft shining
white sand. In this they laid it, and I wish you could
have seen how lovingly they kissed its eyes and lips,
and how tenderly they smoothed and arranged the

 

pretty curling brown hair. Then Pearl wove a lovely
garland of white seaweed, which they twined about it
as it lay in the little cavern, which was then shut up
with a large block of veined gypsum.

Very gravely and silently they had done all this, and
when it was finished Jasper floated. up by himself to
the surface of the sea, where a boat was sailing about
over and over and round and round the same place.
A man in the boat, with a terribly sad face, was leaning