Now believe me! Of all the treasures of the sea I have told you of or
shown you, this is far and away the most precious.

It is a pearl. Only once in a great while will so perfect and so
valuable a gem be found near my deep water home. And although we are not
so very far east, yet it would be called an "Orient," or an "Eastern
pearl."

Perhaps it has floated in its polished pink bed from a far eastern sea.
I told you a little while ago that I must explain what an oyster had to
do with Folks that sported too many jewels, and why it might be amused
at the sight.

Did you know that inside of an oyster-shell grew the lovely, costly
pearls that Folks will give a great deal of money for? Why, Queen
Victoria of England had a Scotch pearl that cost two hundred dollars.
Queens and princes, rich Folks, jewellers, and dealers in precious
stones, will give great sums of money for necklaces, brooches, or rings
that have in them the precious Oriental pearls.

I had to listen very hard to find out what I did about pearls. But I
found that they have been known, talked of, and written about, almost
ever since the beginning of the world.

Oyster-beds are generally much nearer the shore than most kinds of
shells. It is said to be when an oyster gets restless or uneasy that a
strange substance enters the edge of the shell, and after a time a pearl
is formed. And while many pearls are found in oyster-shells, they also
are often found fastened to the pink bosom of a conch-shell.