358 



77ie Story 

 of Kopseep 



was the abundance of good things to eat. 

 Millions of minute Crustacea, tender and 

 delicious, would swarm at times over his den, 

 filling the water full of food and coloring it 

 bright pink, like a tomato soup. He had only 

 to swim lazily through it once or twice with 

 his mouth open and come back gorged to 

 his den, as if he had been swimming around 

 in a rich pudding. In an hour he was hun- 

 gry and would roll up through his strange 

 food bath, filling himself again and again till 

 the swarm passed on with the tides. Then, 

 led by his perpetual hunger, he passed over 

 the rocky ridge to where the ocean's floor 

 slanted upward and spread out into broad 

 level plains. Here the cod had laid their 

 eggs in uncounted millions, and the codlings 

 covered the place like flies on a butcher's 

 block. The little gourmand would stuff him- 

 self till the tails stuck out of his mouth; 

 then with a wriggle he would spew them 

 out and begin all over again, just for the 

 delight of eating. 



Naturally, with all this good feeding, Kop- 

 seep grew till his skin almost cracked to 



