the raft, and then along the raft to where Jack had sunk entirely out of sight. Mr. Williams leaped headfirst into the water and made what the boys afterward called a splendid dive. Once under water he opened his eyes and looked about for Jack. At last he came up, drawing after him the unconscious and apparently lifeless form of Jack, who was taken from the water by the boys. The teacher dispatched two boys to bring Dr. Lanham, while he set himself to restore consciousness by producing artificial breathing. It was some time after Dr. Lanham's arrival that Jack fully regained his consciousness, when he was carried home by the strong arms of Bob Holliday, Will Riley, and Pewee, in turn. Sea birds come to the coral island, and rest and build; and seeds are floated thither from far lands; and among them almost always is the cocoanut, What he does is this: when he finds a fallen cocoanut, he begins tearing away the thick husk and fiber with his strong claws, and he knows perfectly well which end to tear it from; namely, from the end where the eyeholes are,— which you call the monkey's face, -out of one of which, you know, the young cocoanut would burst forth. And when he has got to the eyeholes, he hammers through one of them with the point of his heavy claw. So far, so good: but how is he to get the meat out? He cannot put his claw in. He has no proboscis like a butterfly to insert and suck with. He is as far off from his dinner as the fox was when the stork offered him a feast in a long-necked jar. What, then, do you think he does? He turns himself round, puts in a pair of his hind pincers, which are very slender, and with them scoops the meat out of the cocoanut, and so puts his dinner into his mouth with his hind feet. And even the cocoanut husk he does not waste; for he lives in deep burrows which he makes, like a rabbit; and being a luxurious crab, and liking to sleep soft in his hard shell, he lines them with a quantity of the cocoanut fiber, picked out clean and fine, just as if he were going to make cocoanut matting of it. And being also a clean crab, he goes down to the sea every night to have his bath and moisten his gills; and so he lives happy all his days, and gets. so fat in his old age that he carries in his body nearly a quart of pure oil. That is the history of the cocoanut crab. And if any one tells me that the crab acts only on what is called "instinct," but does not think and reason, though of course not in words as you and I do, then I shall be inclined to say that that person does not think nor reason either. CHARLES KINGSLEY. DAFFODILS. I wandered lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, A host, of golden daffodils Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Continuous as the stars that shine. Ten thousand saw I at a glance, Tossing their heads in sprightly dance. The waves beside them danced; but they In such a jocund company; I gazed and gazed — but little thought What wealth to me the show had brought. For oft, when on my couch I lie And then my heart with pleasure fills, WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. THE SONG OF PIPPA. The year's at the spring, The snail's on the thorn : God's in his heaven All's right with the world. ROBERT BROWNING. |