omon. "Come, we'll get
some of it for you."
"Oh!" cried little Jacob. "Will you? Thank you, sir."
And Captain Solomon told two of the sailors to come and to bring a big
bucket. The bucket had a long rope fastened across, and the end was long
enough to reach from the water up to the deck of the _Industry_. They
use buckets like that to dip up the salt water; and, when the ship is
going the sailors have to be very careful and very quick or they will
lose the bucket, it pulls so hard.
So one sailor dipped the bucket just as they were passing over one of
the rows of seaweed; and the other sailor took hold of the rope, too, as
soon as he had dipped the bucket, and they pulled it up and set it on
deck. Captain Solomon stooped and took up a plant. There were two plants
in the bucket. Little Sol had come when he saw the sailors with the
bucket.
And Captain Solomon showed the boys that a plant was about the size of a
cabbage, and that it had a great many little balloons that grew on it
about as big as a pea, and these balloons were filled with air to make
the plant float. Some of them were almost as big as a nut, and little
Sol and little Jacob had fun trying to make them pop.
[Illustration]
Then little Sol found a tiny fish in the bucket that was just the color
of the weed; and little Jacob saw another, and then he saw a crab drop
from the weed that Captain Solomon was holding, and the crab was just
the color of the weed, too. And they amused themselves for a long time
with hunting for the queer fishes and crabs and shrimps, and something
that was like a mussel, but it wasn't just like one, either. And they
found a place in the weed where were some little balls. And they opened
the balls, and little Sol said he'd bet that they were where some
animal laid its eggs. But little Jacob didn't say anything, for he
didn't pretend to know anything about it. But Captain Solomon got tired
of holding that weed, so he dropped it back into the bucket and went
away. And, at last, when little Jacob and little Sol got tired of
hunting for things in the weed, the sailors threw it over into the ocean
again.
And that's all.
THE FLYING-FISH STORY
Once upon a time there was a wide river that ran into the ocean, and
beside it was a little city. And in that city was a wharf where great
ships came from far countries. And a narrow road led down a very steep
hill to that wharf, and anybody that wanted to go to the wharf had
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