The drill does not live alone in a place by himself. A whole host of them live near one another. The very strangest thing about the drill is his tongue. It is from his tongue that he gets his name. Did you ever see a man use a file? With it he can cut a hole in a piece of iron or stone. The tongue of the drill is like a file. How is this tongue made? It is a little soft band that will move in any way, or roll up, or push out. In this fine band are set three rows of teeth. There are many teeth in each row. The teeth are fine and as hard as the point of a pin. We could not see them if we did not use the glass that you were told of. With this fine tongue the drill can cut or saw a hole in a thick shell. The drill is very greedy. He eats many kinds of shell-fish. He likes best of all to eat the oyster. How does he go to work? He cannot break the shell of the oyster as the conch can. No. The way he does is this. With his tough foot he gets fast hold of the oyster-shell. He picks out the thin, smooth spot called the eye of the shell. Then he goes to work to file his hole. It will take him a long time. Some say it will take him two days. But he is not lazy. He keeps fast hold and saws away. At last the hole is made clear through the shell. It is small, smooth, even; no man could make a neater hole. Then he puts into the hole a long tube which is on the end of his cloak or veil. He can suck with that, and he sucks up the oyster till the poor thing is all gone. LESSON XXXIX. THE STORY OF A WAR. When the drill gets on the back of an oyster, what can the oyster do? Nothing. The poor oyster cannot help himself. Does he hear hour after hour the file of the drill on his shell? Yes. He knows the drill will get in and kill him, but all that he can do is to keep still and wait. The oyster is not the only kind of shell-fish that the drill eats. When the drill goes after the poor shell-fish that have no heads, he eats them at his ease. They cannot help themselves. They do not know how to get away from Mr. Drill. The shell-fish that have no heads live in shells made of two parts, like the covers of a book. The two parts are held to each other by a hinge. It is a bad thing, it seems, to have no head. Without a head who can take care of himself? But let us see Mr. Drill try a fight with a shell-fish that has a head. Now he meets his match! He goes to the top of the shell. He makes fast, and begins--file, file, file. The fish inside hears him. “O, are you there, Mr. Drill?” What do you think the shell-fish does? He draws his body out of the way, and builds up a nice little wall! So, when Mr. Drill gets his hole made, and puts in his tongue--no fish, only a hard wall! Then Mr. Drill also moves along. He picks out a good place. Once more he goes to work--file, file, file. “O, _here_ you are, Mr. Drill!” And the shell-fish with a head once more pulls his body out of the way, and makes a new wall. [Illustration: SEA-SIDE COTTAGES.]