354 THK STORY-HOOK OF SCIFACK 



slimy animal lias for his a splendid palace of mother- 

 of-pearl." 



"Where does the meleaiTiiia live.' 1 ' 



"In the seas that wash the shores of Arabia. " 



"Is Arabia very far away?" in- 

 quired Emile. 



1 1 Very far, my dear. Why do you 

 ask?" ' 

 "Because I should like to pick up 



Meleagriua^avic- a lot of tllCSC beautiful shells." 



ula) margaritifera "Don't dream of such a thing. 

 It is too far away, and, besides, they are not to be 

 gathered by every one that wants them. To get the 

 meleagrina men have to dive to the bottom of the sea, 

 and some of them never come up again. ' ' 



"And there are people who dare to dive to the bot- 

 tom of the sea just to get shells!" asked Claire. 



"Plenty. So profitable, too, is the trade that we 

 should be badly received by the first-comers if we 

 took a notion to go and fish with them." 



"Then those shells are very precious?" 



"You shall judge for yourself. First the, inner 

 layer of the shell, sawed into sheets and tablets, is 

 the mother-of-pearl that we use for fine ornamenta- 

 tion. Jules ' penknife-handle is covered with a sheet 

 of mother-of-pearl that was part of the inside of a 

 pearl-shell. But that is the least part of what the 

 precious shell produces. There are pearls as well." 



"But pearls are not very dear. With a few sous I 

 bought a whole boxful, to embroider you a purse." 



"Let us make a distinction: there are pearls and 

 pearls. The pearls you mention are little pieces of 



