“It’s a bad habit I’ve got, an’ I’m too old to break myself of it,” said Cap’n Bill.  Then he felt in the big pocket of his coat and took out a pipe and a bag of tobacco.  After he had carefully filled his pipe, rejoicing in the fact that the tobacco was not at all wet, he took out his matchbox and struck a light.  The match burned brightly, and soon the sailor was puffing the smoke from his pipe in great contentment.  The smoke ascended through the water in the shape of bubbles, and Trot wondered what a nyone who happened to be floating upon the surface of the ocean would think to see smoke coming from the water.

“Well, I find I can smoke, all right,” remarked Cap’n Bill, “but it bothers me to understand why.”

“It is because of the air space existing between the water and everything you have about you,” explained Merla.  “But now, if you will come this way, I will take you to visit some of our neighbors.”  They passed over the carpet of sea flowers, the gorgeous blossoms swaying on their stems as the motion of the people in the water above them disturbed their repose, and presently the three entered the dense shrubbery surrounding the palace.  They had not proceeded far when they came to a clearing among the bushes, and here Merla paused.

Trot and Cap’n Bill paused, too, for floating in the clear water was a group of beautiful shapes that the child thought looked like molds of wine jelly.  They were round as a dinner plate, soft and transparent, but tinted in such lovely hues that no artist’s brush has ever been able to imitate them.  Some were deep sapphire blue; others rose pink; still others a delicate topaz color.  They seemed to have neither heads, eyes nor ears, yet it was easy to see they were alive and able to float in any direction they wished to go.  In shape they resembled inverted flowerpots, with the upper edges fluted, and from the centers floated what seemed to be bouquets of flowers.

“How pretty!” exclaimed Trot, enraptured by the sight.

“Yes, this is a rare variety of jellyfish,” replied Merla.  “The creatures are not so delicate as they appear, and live for a long time—­unless they get too near the surface and the waves wash them ashore.”

After watching the jellyfish a few moments, they followed Merla through the grove, and soon a low chant, like that of an Indian song, fell upon their ears.  It was a chorus of many small voices and grew louder as they swam on.  Presently a big rock rose suddenly before them from the bottom of the sea, rearing its steep side far up into the water overhead, and this rock was thickly covered with tiny shells that clung fast to its surface.  The chorus they heard appeared to come from these shells, and Merla said to her companions, “These are the singing barnacles.  They are really very amusing, and if you listen carefully, you can hear what they say.”

So Trot and Cap’n Bill listened, and this is what the barnacles sang: