From @zeugma’s Project Gutenberg Daily Releases comes this…
SHELLS AND PEBBLES.
A Story for Children.
BY THE AUTHOR OF “STORIES FOR THE NURSERY.”
PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF
THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION,
APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 1852.
EBook: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69452
<– Cuttle-fish and eggs
“This,” said Mr. Miller, “is the backbone of a cuttle-fish. The animal, when alive, is soft, and nearly transparent. It has a large head, on which there are a number of long arms stretching out. It lives on small fish, which it chases, and then catches hold of by the help of many small suckers on its arms.[33] When chased itself, it spurts out a quantity of black fluid, like ink, making the water so thick and dark that its enemy loses sight of it, and is obliged to give up the chase. Often, when I have been fishing from a boat, a cuttle-fish has followed a fish which[34] I have caught, up to the very surface of the water, and sometimes I have caught the cuttle-fish itself, by darting into it a hook fastened to the end of a stick.
This is the story of an English boy’s first trip to the sea shore. With his father they walk along the beach and father identifies various things that have washed up on the shore. Lovely illustrations accompany the story. It ends
And now I have reached the end of my story. There is little in it but an account of what Henry and his father saw in the course of a few hours, on the sea-shore. You too, if you like, may pick up shells and pebbles, and see in them some of the wondrous works of God’s creation. If you do not live near the sea, look for curious things by the river’s side, in the woods, or in the hedges. They are everywhere, all differing one from another, but alike leading us to admire the wisdom and goodness of God.
