CHAPTER LXX 



SHELLS 



IN Uncle Paul's room was a drawer full of shells 

 of all sorts. One of his friends had collected 

 them in his travels. Pleasant hours could be passed 

 in looking at them. Their beautiful colors, their 

 pleasing but sometimes odd shapes, diverted the 

 eye. Some were twisted like a spiral stair-case, oth- 

 ers widened out in large horns, still others opened 

 and closed like a snuff-box. Some were ornamented 

 with radiating ribs, knotty creases, or plates laid 

 one on another like the slates of a roof ; some bristled 

 with points, spines, or jagged scales. Here were 

 some smooth as eggs, sometimes white, sometimes 

 spotted with red ; others, near the rose-tinted open- 

 ing, had long points resembling wide-stretched fin- 

 gers. They came from all parts of the world. This 

 came from the land of the negroes, that from the Red 

 Sea, others from China, India, Japan. Truly, many 

 pleasant hours could be passed in examining them 

 one by one, especially if Uncle Paul were to tell you 

 about them. 



One day Uncle Paul gave his nephews this pleas- 

 ure : he spread before them the riches of his drawer. 

 Jules and Claire looked at them with amazement; 

 Emile was never tired of putting the large shells to 

 his ear and listening to the continual hoo-hoo-lioo 



344 



