by Edith Howes
"Oh, dear! I wonder whatever is the matter with me? I don't think Ishall ever come up to the top again," sighed Fanny.
The others tried to cheer her. "Don't be downhearted," they said."Perhaps you will feel better to-morrow. Maybe you have eatensomething that disagrees with you."
"But what a pity! She is certainly losing her beautiful shape," theyremarked to one another as they swam away. "And that eye is a mostmysterious business."
They came back again a day or two later. Fanny--could it beFanny?--was on the sand. She wriggled up to meet them, and they staredmore and more. She was not now long and slim, but flat and wide. Andher eye! It had gone quite round the corner, and was now on the sameside of her head as her right eye. Strange to say, she lookedperfectly happy.
"I am well again," she said. "See, my eye has gone round out of theway, and I am so flat that I can lie comfortably on this nicesea-floor. Isn't it splendid?"
"It is a very ugly change," said one.
"Oh, dear, do you think so?" asked poor Fanny. "At any rate, thechange is most convenient," she went on, brightening. "See--one lieson the sand, so. One's flatness allows one to wriggle partly under thesand, so as to escape one's enemies; and one's eyes are both on top,where they are most needed. You had better come down and grow flat,too."
"Not for the world!" cried the others in chorus. "What a life, lyingin the sand! And what an ugly shape! Are you going to stay herealways?"
"Yes," said Fanny. "The food here suits me."
"Good-bye, then. We are off to the top," they said.
As they swam away one impudent little creature turned round and called:"Good-bye, Fanny Flatface!" That is how poor Fanny got the name.
"How are you to-day, Fanny Flatface?" the thoughtless little fisheswould call as they swam over her head. They thought it a clever thingto say.
She would bury herself in the sand and pretend not to hear, but it madeher most unhappy. She thought of all the other fishes she had seen."None of them are flat," she said, "and none of them have two eyes onone side of the head. How dreadful I must look!" Lonely andmiserable, she lay there for months, keeping herself well hidden fromsight.
One day she left the spot, hardly knowing why, and floated with thetide into the estuary mouth. A sunny shallow seemed to draw her withthe memory of early days. She swam boldly in. Yes, this was her oldfirst home. What had become of her brothers and sisters? Would theyreceive her, now that she had changed so terribly?
The mud floor moved, and scores of flounders raised themselves andlooked at her. Flat! As flat as herself! And each with two eyes onone side of the head. What comfort! She was no monstrosity, after all.
"Who are you?" they asked.
"Fanny," she replied.
They all came out to look at her.
"Why, it really is Fanny!" they exclaimed. "But how you have grown!How bright your red spots are! And how softly silvered is yourunder-side! How white and strong your teeth! You are certainly thebeauty of the family. Have you come to live with us?"
"Yes, oh yes," she answered joyfully. What happiness was hers, afterthe long months of shame and loneliness!
It was a pleasant life they led. By day, while the warm sun shone,they basked below the mud. At night they feasted on the shoals ofshrimps and jointed darting creatures that filled the water over them.As they slowly moved from bank to bank their upper skins changed colourwith the colour of the floor on which they fed, and thus securely hidthem from their enemies.
One day the whitebait, grown now to little herrings, came up theestuary. "Why, there is Fanny Flatface," said one.
Her sister flounders rose beside her. The herrings gaped in wonder."So that was just your way of growing up!" they said at last.
"Just my way of growing up," said Fanny cheerfully.
IX.--THE OYSTER BABIES
The Oyster-Mother was talking to her babies. "You are leaving me tomake your own way in the sea," she said. "Keep in mind what I have sooften told you, that everybody bigger than yourself is an enemy to beavoided. Here is something else to remember. When you are tired ofswimming about, and wish to settle down to grow your shells, choose aclean gravelly bank or a firm rock floor. Sand or mud, if you choosethose, would sift into your shells with every tide, and you would soonbe choked. And when your shells are made, never forget that anoyster's chief concern in life is to know when to shut up. A momenttoo late in that, and life is over for you."
The babies swam out of the shell. This was not their first expedition,but in former times they had stayed near their mother, ready to slip inat the first scent of danger. Now they were to take care ofthemselves. No babies could have looked less fitted to do it. So tinywere they that the whole three hundred of them, placed head to tail ina line, would not have measured longer than one's middle finger.Boneless, shell-less, weaponless, their only safeguard was theirwater-like transparency. It seemed impossible that creatures so tendercould live in the savage sea, where hungry monsters roamed incessantlyin search of prey. Yet they were not afraid. Perhaps they were tooyoung to think. Up they went. Near the surface of the sea they met ashoal of cousin babies.
"We are going to travel before we settle down," said the cousins."Will you join our party?"
"We shall be delighted," said the babies.
The shoal set off. There were millions now, darting here and there,their tiny round bodies flashing like crystal globules through thewater, their belts of swimming hairs wafting the microscopic creaturesof the sea into their ever-ready mouths. For days they travelled,growing every hour a little larger, but still defenceless in the savagesea. Sometimes lurking enemies dragged off stragglers from the edgesof the shoal; sometimes a great fish drove through their millions withhis mouth wide open, swallowing all that came within his path. Thenthe ranks closed up again and went onward as before; but the shoal wassmaller than at first, and the babies grew more watchful. At last theywere tired, and a little frightened too.
"Let us find a settling-place and grow our shells," said one.
They sank to the sea-floor. It was sand. That would not do. Theydrifted on. The sand gave place to mud. That would not do, either.They drifted on again. At last a stretch of gravel, clean and firm,lay beneath them. "A splendid place," said the babies, joyfully,remembering their mother's words. Down they dropped, each one settlingon a stone and there fixing himself for life.
Now came the marvellous making of those strong shells which were to betheir safe retreat from every enemy. Furnished by the rich seafood, alimy fluid formed in each soft baby's body, to ooze through tiny poresin his outer skin, and there to harden into shell. Day by day, week byweek, the beautiful growth went on, till a two-walled house was made,with lustrous pearly lining and a powerful hinge to pull the edges ofthe walls together.
At first the shells were thin. Hungry whelks, finding them, could boreround holes in them with their sharp-pointed shells and so reach thejuicy babies; wandering starfishes could clasp them in their longray-arms and swallow shell and baby whole. But as the months and yearspassed by, and the surviving babies grew to greater size, layer afterlayer was added to the shells, until at last, rock-hard and strong,they kept out all intruders.
Now the oysters were secure. From helpless, shell-less, recklessbabies they had grown to cautious, well-defended dwellers in the sea,living quiet lives in peace within their firm shell walls. When noenemy was near their shells lay open; their fringed, delicate gillswere hung out and waved to and fro to catch their food. But at thefirst alarm there was a quick withdrawing of the gills, aninstantaneous closing of the shelly walls. To the enemy all wasfirm-locked, silent, hidden. The babies had grown into full knowledge;they had learned when to shut up.
FANNY FLY
Rover the dog left a bone only half cleaned under the fence, and forgotto go for it again, so Mrs. Fly laid her eggs on it. In a day or twothe eggs hatched out into tiny white creatures with no legs. They atehard for a few
days at the meat left on the bone, and then settled downand kept still while they changed into flies. When they broke theirway out of their old skins you would hardly believe they had once beenwhite and helpless, for now they were dark in colour, with wings thatgleamed as they moved, and wonderful eyes and feelers and legs.
Fanny Fly was one of them. She was a beauty. Her eyes were big andred-brown in colour, and so wonderfully made that she could see behindher just as well as in front. From each side of her chest two finewings sprang out, gleaming with green and red; under them were her twobalancers. On her back she wore a shining purple cloak. She had sixlegs, all jointed so that she could bend them in any direction, and allfurnished with the most wonderful things, claws and suckers for holdingon to the roof, and tiny combs and brushes for keeping herself neat andclean.
She flew first to the garden and sucked honey with her short tonguefrom any flowers that were not too deep. Then through an open windowshe flew into the house. "Here I shall have a good time," she said;and a good time she certainly did have.
She melted sugar in the basin with the juice from her mouth, so thatshe could suck it up; she sipped honey and treacle from the jars in thepantry that were left uncovered for even a moment; she stood on themeat and sucked juices out of that. Nothing came amiss to her.Whatever was there became food to her, so she was always fat and happy.
She played with the other flies on the window-panes and across theceiling; they all danced in the air and buzzed till they were tired.She had many narrow escapes--from spiders in dark corners, fromdusters, and from small boys who wished to catch her. Once she wasnearly drowned in a dish of jam. On the whole, however, she had a verygood time.
But the summer drew to an end, and the winter came. "I must find asnug corner, or I shall die of cold," said Fanny Fly.
She looked for a hiding place in the house, but the best corners hadall been taken by other flies; so she slipped out through the windowand crawled into a clump of grass roots and stalks under the hedge.There she went to sleep till the warm days came again.
AT SUNSET
A tiny pool lay looking up at the cloud-flecked sky. His water-spidersand insect-babies went about their eager businesses beneath hissurface, but he took very little notice of them. His thoughts werebusy with the clouds so far above him; all day he was longing to bewith them. The evening came and the clouds flocked round the settingsun, turning gold and crimson in the wonderful light; then the littlepool longed more than ever to be with them. "If that could only be mylife!" he sighed. "To live in the blue sky and to be made beautiful!"
A passing wind heard his words and repeated them to the clouds. Theytold the kindly sun, and he sent a message by his sunbeams to comfortthe little pool. "You shall come up here some day," he bade them say;"but you have many duties to perform before you can be a sunset cloud.Do well your present work, and wait with patience."
Then the pool rejoiced. Day after day he did his lowly work withinfinite care, nourishing his flowers and rushes and tinywater-creatures, and turning a bright and patient face to the sky andhis loved clouds.
One hot day the wonderful change came. The sun looked down, saw thework so well done, and gently lifted him through the air to the sky.
This was glorious. He was now a fluffy white cloud, sailing over thesky and joining the other clouds in their games and dances. In themorning they played shadow-flight across the hills of the earth; in theafternoon they danced slow dances high above the sea.
The time of sunset came, and the new cloud wished to go with the othersto be made beautiful. But they said: "No, little brother; that is notpossible till you have done cloud work." So he was left lonely andwhite in the east, untouched by the sun's lovely light.
In the night came his old friend the wind. "You are to go down againto the earth," was the message it brought. It blew coldly on thelittle cloud till he shivered and fell in a thousand drops of rain uponthe earth. There the drops lay till morning amongst the gratefulflowers and grasses, giving them fresh life, and bearing bravely thedisappointment of being sent to earth again. The sun looked down inthe afternoon and raised him up, and once more he floated joyfullyacross the sky.
Then the fierce storm wind came and froze him with its icy breath.Down he fell again upon the earth, this time as clattering hailstones."This is all very trying," he said; "but it seems to be my work, so Imust not grumble."
Again he was drawn up. Then the snow-wind came and silently froze himinto feathery snowflakes, and drove him down upon a mountain side.Here he lay for many days, till at last he was drawn up once more. Andnow the sun said: "You have done well and waited patiently, littlecloud. To-night you shall have your reward."
So when the time of sunset came the little cloud sailed into the westwith the others. There the sun smiled at him and shone so gloriouslyon him that he turned golden and red, and glowed more brightly than anythere.
SUMMER TEARS
The little clouds ran off to play Across the summer sky; Their sunshine mother called them back-- They all began to cry.
Their tears fell down as drops of rain On dusty garden beds; The flowers opened wide their cups, The leaves held up their heads.
And "Thank you, gentle clouds," they said, "For drops so big and wet; We were so thirsty. Did you know? Don't leave off crying yet."
THE WHEAT PEOPLE
It was spring. The winter storms were over, the sun was beginning towarm up the earth, and everything was stirring. Under the ground theWheat Babies were pushing off their warm blankets and struggling out oftheir cradles. "We wish to go up now and see what the world is like,"they said. They pushed and pushed until at last their heads were abovethe ground, and they could see what the world was like. "What abeautiful place!" they said. "How blue the sky is! And how golden thesun! All around the birds are singing." They grew tall and graceful,and waved and nodded to one another across the field.
Now it was early summer. The wheat boys and girls had grown up, andwere busily building their little houses. Such dainty little housesthey were, with shining walls and polished floors and delicate greensilk hangings. Then the wheat people stood on their doorsteps andwaved feathery flowers out of the doorways as a signal to the wind.
"We are ready to be married," they called. "Come and marry us, please."
The wind came blowing gently out of the West, took them on its broadwings, and carried them to one another's houses to be married. Thebirds sang, the sun shone, the crickets played the wedding tune ontheir little banjos, and the wee wheat people were as happy as could be.
The later summer came, and in each house the door was shut to keep thedraught from the dear wee baby that had come. There was no time tostand on the doorstep now, for everybody was busy, feeding the baby andmaking a store of food for it when father and mother should be gone.
Autumn came. The Wheat People turned golden, for they were growingold; and gold, not grey, is the sign of age amongst the Wheat People.In each house the baby lay in its cradle wrapped in snow-whiteblankets, and surrounded by rich white food for the winter.
The reaper thundered into the field, and the tired Wheat People fellgratefully before the sharp knives, for they were glad to rest. "Ourchildren are provided for, and that is all that is necessary," theythought as they lay dying in the sheaves.
Winter came. The field was ploughed and bare, but in the barn the newWheat Babies slept in their snug cradles till they should be placed inthe warm moist earth and the time of spring and growth should comeagain.
CHICK-A-PICK
Chick-a-pick lived in a round white house with shining walls. Allabout him was white soft food; he floated at the end of a ball ofyellow food. He himself was only a speck. Have you found out yet thathis house was an egg?
He grew bigger, for Hen-Mother sat over him day and night, cuddling himunder her warm breast. Every day she turned his egg-house over so thathe should grow evenly. Each time she did that he floated
from thebottom of the egg-house to the top, to be near the warm Hen-Mother.This kept him moving, and made him grow strong. As he grew he used upthe white food and the yellow food, till by-and-by there was no foodleft in the house, but only Chick-a-pick. Have you found out yet thatChick-a-pick was a chicken?
One day he wished to come out. He tapped on the inside wall. "Peckhard," called his mother. "I will help you from the outside."
Chick-a-pick pecked hard with his little new beak. Hen-Mother peckedsoftly with her big strong beak, and presently a hole was made. Outpopped Chick-a-pick's head. "Cheep!" he said.
"Well done, little son," said his mother. "Now push with yourshoulders and break the shell."
He pushed and pushed with his little new shoulders, till crack! wentthe shell in halves. Out he stepped. Have you found out yet thatChick-a-pick was strong?
"You are the first. Cuddle under my wings till your brothers andsisters come out," said the Hen-Mother.
"Cheep! cheep! cheep!" went the brothers and sisters one after theother. Chick-a-pick listened and watched from his snug corner.
"Now we are all here," said the Hen-Mother at last. "Cluck! cluck!cluck! What a fine brood you are! Yellow and black and white, and allcovered with the softest, prettiest down I ever saw. How dainty yourtoes are! How bright are your eyes!"
She led them out for a little walk. "Cluck! cluck! cluck!" she said."See--here is soft food spread for you. Cluck! cluck! You may have itall. I shall not eat till you are satisfied. I could not bear mychickens to go hungry. Cluck! cluck! Eat plenty. Eat plenty."
