tained us from further wandering along the shore 

 — Aphrodite, a sea-mouse. 



It lay motionless near the very edge of the pool, 

 resting on the bottom at a depth of about two feet, 

 a blazing glory of celestial light. Here was a find 

 indeed. Its scarcity in this locality I had more than 

 once deplored in my endeavor to capture its colors 

 on my canvases of sea life. In nearly a decade of 

 constant searching hereabouts, I have come across 

 just two specimens. 



To capture it was merely a matter of stepping 

 into the tide pool ; but before doing so I resolved 

 first to feast my eyes on this most gorgeous and 

 gigantic of the ocean's living gems while it rested 

 undisturbed within its natural setting. 



Now I suppose it would give an added air of 

 characterization if I could relate here how I did 

 the conventional thing that all naturalists are sup- 

 posed to do on an occasion like this — how, in my 

 desire to study the sea-mouse more closely, I threw 

 myself prone upon the wet and weedy edge, how, 

 in utter disregard of comfort and for the appear- 

 ance of my clothing, I maintained for minutes 

 without end an immobile ecstatic posture lying in 

 the mud. But I did nothing of the sort. I did the 



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