Think of a little house, if you can, made entirely of ivory, with here and there bright tints mingling with the white.  For coral looks like ivory when its natural roughness is smoothed and polished.  Think of swimming through little rooms, under arches, over lovely walks, through make-believe doors, slipping past upright altars of red and white coral, resting on spreading seats, or under outreaching canopies, or stopping to look at another outreaching shape like the arms of candelabra or candlestick holders.  Sliding over footstools, and under culverts, all soft and gleaming in color.  Then again there are curves and passages in which we can hide and stay hidden as long as we please.  Is it not beautiful?  And all so clean and clear!

Yet there is need to take heed and be careful.  These stretching shapes and branches, these candle-holders and bushy twigs have sharp, hard points, and bouncing against them too suddenly might severely wound a fish, or it might slip into a crevice where it would be pricking work to get out.

Now, what is coral.  Is it alive?  Does it live and breathe?  It is one of the curious, mysterious things of the ocean about which Folks have written and studied, and the wise ones say that coral is neither insect nor fish, but a kind of sea-animal, that lives in both deep and shallow waters.  In the beginning it appears to be a tiny sea-creature, like a small, fleshy bag, with a mouth at one end, while with the other it clings to some object, almost always a rock.

These little creatures are said to have the power to sting if they are provoked.  From these tiny frames there comes a hard, stony substance that spreads and spreads as we have seen, while the part that was alive becomes a mere dead shell.

This is the best explanation I can give about coral and the tiny creatures from which it takes its start, and that seem so exceedingly small to me to be called “sea-animals.”  But think of the wonderful formations that grow from the bodies of these mites of creatures!  Why, there are whole reefs or chains of rocky borders along some coasts made entirely of coral.  Some of them are known as barrier reefs.

Bless you! it may be hard to believe, but a barrier reef twelve hundred miles long runs along the coast of Australia between the Pacific and Indian Oceans!  Then there are coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, whole platforms of solid coral which shut in portions of quiet water in some places.

The little corals themselves do not work in deep water, nor above the surface of the sea.  But the bony substance spreads and spreads, up, down, and across the sea.  And as many shell-fish eat into coral, great quantities of fine coral-sand sink to the bottom, making a nice white carpet for the fishes to glide over.  Folks do not take coral from the sea at any time but during the months you call April, May, and June.

Now remember these things when you go into houses and see fine large pieces of coral on the mantel, or it may be standing against the wall.