CHAPTER V.

MY GARDENS

Long as I have talked of shells, I must say a word or two more about shells that are used as stones.

When I was on land a little while, I noticed in front of a few houses, walks, that I knew at a glance were made from clam-shells.  So I knew that Folks must have machines for pounding up shells.  Such a beautiful, clean, white walk as they make!

Then, before some fine-looking houses were great conch-shells, oblong and twisted in shape, but pink and smooth inside.  Many of them were placed around lovely fountains, or urns of flowers.

But I want to tell of one very beautiful and costly kind of ornament that is made from some conch-shells, pronounced “konk.”

Romans and Greeks, but especially the Greeks, used to cut “cameos” from the onyx-stone.  And men skilled in cutting fine stones and jewels have cut most exquisite cameos, or faces, from the kind of conch-shell that has two layers, one dark, the other light.

The word “cameo” is said to mean one stone upon another.  The “queen conch” is a splendid shell, with two distinct layers, one white, the other pink.  Out of the white layer is carved perhaps the face of a woman, with a crown of flowers on her head, or it may be the head of a knight, with a helmet on.

But think of the fineness of the tools that must be used, the tiny files and chisels in carving the lovely, delicate shells.  The shell cameos with the pink lower stone and white upper figure, are most expensive of all; other shells have brown or black lower layers, and these are not as choice.

But when you see your grandma or great-auntie wearing a lovely old-fashioned breastpin, bound around with gold, and holding a pink stone, shining like crystal, with a white carved head or other figure standing out from the lower stone, you may know it is a very valuable ornament, and was probably made from one of the finest shells found in the sea.  Imitations are made from porcelain, but very likely grandma’s or great-auntie’s will be the real conch-shell.

Perhaps you did not know that there are fair and beautiful gardens in my watery home.  You may have picked up sprays or bunches of seaweed when running along the beach, and some were perhaps quite pretty, while others had turned brown and looked much like leather.

Would you like to come with Lord Dolphin and take a swim through an ocean garden?  You would doubtless see such a sight as you had never dreamed could be seen down in the blue water.

All right, I’ll turn into a fairy godfather, clap you on to my back, give you the lungs of a mermaid, to prevent your choking in the water, and then, come on!  Or, rather, I should say, come down!

“Why, why!  A fairylike scene indeed!” you cry.

Now you have not taken on “the evil eye” in coming to the bottom of the sea, but you have taken a “fish eye.”  Folks usually hate fishy eyes, but no matter, you couldn’t see the first thing down here with your own natural peepers, so be thankful that for a time you can see with eyes like mine.