ff the desolate waste of sand before me. Again and again it sounded,
and at last realising that it might be uttered by some creature in
distress, I stood up and, as far as the fading light would permit,
scanned the sands in every direction.

'Nothing, however, could I see, and as the moan still continued at
intervals and became, in fact, more and more painful and beseeching, I
wandered about, a prey to the liveliest anxiety, endeavouring to
discover whence it proceeded.

'At length I perceived on the sand, at a little distance before me, a
small dark motionless object, and at that instant a harrowing sound,
arising therefrom on the evening air, left me in no doubt as to the
origin of the moans I had already heard. Creeping as quietly as possible
on my hands and knees quite close to it, I found it to be a lovely blue
point oyster, and bringing my head to a level with the shell, I asked
coaxingly, and in as soft a voice as I could command, what ailed it.

[Illustration: Harmless indeed were our joys]

'"Alas!" said the oyster, "a little while ago I possessed a child as
sweet as ever chortled to its gasping mother, but snatched from me
as it has been by the cruellest of whelks, it may even now lie helpless
in the grasp of the ravenous brute, as it ruthlessly sups off its
delicate limbs. No such grief have I had since that old native, my
worthy husband, was slain, and was laid in state, his hoary head
supported by a slice of lemon, beside a piece of brown bread-and-butter."

[Illustration: I PLEADED MY CASE]

'Deeply affected by her grief, I begged her to reveal the name of the
little one and to indicate the direction taken by the marauding whelk.
"Bertram is its name," said the widowed blue point, and I could hear
the tears falling within the shell as, with her beard, she pointed out
the path followed by the rogue.

'I had not proceeded far in the direction indicated when I overtook a
whelk, whose face was quite distorted by a savage look, and whose growls
drowned the feeble cries of a tender blue pointlet whom he dragged along
by the beard.

'"Now what is all this about?" said I to the sullen fellow. "Why should
you, who are maybe blessed with young of your own, rob a poor widowed
oyster of her only consolation since the death of her husband? A heart
of rock would have melted at the cries of your victim, but you,
ungenerous, can have no heart at all, and entirely drag the name of
whelk through the mud." I could d