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.