OLIVES. 147 



fumisli the accompaniment. But I hear my 

 own little Sea-Maiden calling me." 



And Miss Bremely was gone. 



Oliva sc?'ij)fa, wMch the doctor had selected 

 as best illustrating his idea of an ancient tablet 

 or epistle from the royal Oceanus to his well- 

 beloved Queen Tethys, was delicate enough to 

 have been indeed a gift from a sea king to the 

 most lovely nymph either of the ocean or the 

 earth. This sheU was over an inch in length, 

 shining as if polished by the jewel makers of 

 the deep. Its delicate fawn-colored surface, 

 suffused with soft shadings of brown, was writ- 

 ten over in fine zigzag lines of a pale chestnut 

 tint, bearing also in stronger drawn hiero- 

 glyphic figures what seemed as if they might 

 be words or sentences to be emphasized ; and 

 these oft repeated were the markings which 

 the doctor had ingeniously rendered into ex- 

 pressions of endearment, while just above the 

 aperture of the shell, which was a mingling of 

 the blue tint of the waves and the soft white- 

 ness of pearls, a strongly marked inscription he 

 affirmed to be the royal signature and seal. 



The name given this Olive — scripta — 

 showed that others before had recognized in 

 its curious and delicate markings a resemblance 

 to writing. 



