SEA-URCHINS. and does not like very deep water. The animal moves along by feet that come out under the hole at the bottom of the shell. The house is all over knobs or bosses, and is marked in a curious way. There are several kinds of these sea-urchins. In the great beds of chalk which lie on the south and south-east sides of England, there are great floors of fossil seaurchins. How many these floors contain it would be very hard to say. That large shell behind the sea-urchin, with its mouth turned upwards, is the nautilus. This is a shell-fish with sails, which can be spread out like the sails of our boats. The animal, if it is frightened, can fold up its sail in a second, and can sink down to the bottom of the sea, out of the way of danger. The thing behind the nautilus, which looks like a tree in winter, is a piece of coral. There are whole banks of coral many miles long in some seas. The little animal works slowly, but he keeps on working; and having a good many others like himself who are also working, they built up islands. The tides then bring wood and other things which drift on to the island, then birds carry seeds; and so there is made another beautiful gem in the silver sea. "I DARE YOU." "I DARE YOU." "РоOH! I could do it easily, and be back here again could count fifty!" before you 66 Maybe so but you don't dare to try it!" "Don't dare! now, Tom, you know better!" The boy's eyes flashed. In a moment he was over the boundary line, skating skilfully over the forbidden ice; while his schoolmates looked on-some with astonishment, some with fear, and a few with shouts of applause. Clear to the other side he went, though the ice cracked and bent-then, with a graceful turn, he was coming towards them again, swifter, swifter, with a look of pride on his glowing face; and the praises of the other boys already sounding in his ears. "Good for you, Win !" "Win by name, and win by nature !" Who? where was he? where the proud form and smiling face, and the dark hair uncovered in the moment of exultation? Gone! hidden in one moment from their sight under the ice! and the waters rose up over the spot as if their time of triumph had come then. "I DARE YOU." "Oh, what shall we do!" "Stand back! every one of you!" and the voice, generally so kind, frightened them now with its sternness; and they looked in silence at the teacher's white face as he drew off his coat, and crept with it to the boundary-line which he had marked for the boys that morning. Over that, too, so carefully, yet so quickly; and the ice cracked-cracked! And the boys could none of them tell just how it was done, only that soon the dark dripping hair of their schoolmate appeared above the broken ice-then his bodyslowly, slowly dragged towards them, his hand clutching tightly the teacher's coat. The teacher did not speak; and they dared not. In his teacher's own strong arms Winthrop was carried to the house, and warmed and rubbed: andno, he was not dead! for, in a few moments, he opened his eyes, and looking at the group of anxious boyish faces gathered round, said "All right." How it brightened every heart there! The boys could speak now. "O, Win! I haven't counted the fifty yet!" burst out Tom, excitedly, trying to laugh-but if he had not been a boy, he would certainly have cried instead. 66 "I DARE YOU." Now, let me hear all about it," said their teacher calmly, as the colour began to come back into Winthrop's cheeks. "It was all my fault," said Tom humbly. "How came you to disobey my rule, Winthrop, and go beyond the boundary?" "Why I hardly thought about the rule, sir; I wanted to let them see I was not afraid of the ice! they dared me to do it; and when any one dares me to do a thing Winthrop stopped suddenly, as the recollection came over him of the cold, gurgling waters, and of those few terrible moments of suspense. "Then you always dare to do it: is that what you mean?" 66 Yes, sir;" but the voice was not as full of confidence as it had been half an hour before. "And the end of your daring, this time, might have been-death!" A shudder crept over every boy's heart. 66 O, sir, please don't! I dared him!" said Tom. "And so you think a boy is a coward who is dared to do a thing, and doesn't do it?" "It looks so," answered, Winthrop. |