"Ah, a sponge!" you exclaim. Yes, and here is where they grow. "What,
sponges grow?" you ask. Certainly. And just as with the coral, it took
Folks a long time to find out whether sponges were plants, shrubs, or
insects.

Now it is decided that the sponge is an animal growth. And the same as
with coral, the tiny creature that it starts from dies, and out from the
skeleton, or frame, branches the sponge that sometimes grows very large,
and sometimes is of a kind that remains small. One may be as big as a
mop, others no larger than an egg.

Down in the blue Mediterranean Sea are found the best sponges that grow.
They are called "horny sponges," and grow in great masses, fine, yet
tough and durable. A sponge from the Mediterranean, called the "Turkey
sponge," will cost three times as much as a coarser, more brittle one
from other waters. They are porous, or full of little holes and hollows.

We fishes like to bang against the sponges and feel the sudden spray
dash over us. Water we have all around and about us, but a shower-bath
is not as common a thing.

When you buy a sponge, it is round, flat, or cone-shaped. Now see what
they look like under water. Here is a little tree, you say. Oh, no, it
is only a mass of sponges piled together and branching out as they grow.

Here are fans, arches, tiny caves, and many different shapes forming a
sponge-garden. Queer, isn't it? Oh, lots of things are queer until you
learn about them.

Would you like to see how I wash myself? Don't laugh so loud, you might