The thought in this chapter is evident, namely, that love for the out of doors is dependent upon knowledge of the out of doors. The more we _know_ and the better we _understand_, the more perfect and marvelous nature seems and the more lovely. The toadfish _looks_ loathly, but upon closer study he becomes very interesting, even admirable--one of the very foundations of real love. So, as a teacher and as a lover of nature, be careful never to use the words “ugly” or “nasty” or “loathly”; never shrink from a toad; never make a wry face at a worm; never show that you are having a nervous fit at a snake; for it all argues a lack of knowledge and understanding. All life, from Man to the Am[oe]ba, is one long series of links in a golden chain, one succession of wonderful life-histories, each vastly important, all making up the divinely beautiful world of life which our lives crown, but of which we are only a part, and, perhaps, no more important a part than the toadfish. FOR THE PUPIL The toadfish of this story is _Batrachus tau_, sometimes called oyster-fish or sapo. The fishing-frog or angler is by some called toadfish, as is also the swell-fish or common puffer of the Atlantic Coast. PAGE 21 _Buzzards Bay_: Where is Buzzards Bay? Do you know Whittier’s beautiful poem, _The Prayer of Agassiz_, which begins:-- “On the isle of Penikese Ringed about by sapphire seas.” Where is Penikese? What waters are those “sapphire seas,” and what was Agassiz doing there? PAGE 23 _Davy Jones_: Who is Davy Jones? Look him up under _Jones, Davy_, in your dictionary of _Proper Names_. Get into the “looking up” habit. Never let anything in your reading, that you do not understand, go unlooked up. _Old Man of the Sea_: Look him up too. Are he and Davy Jones any relation? _It was really a fish_: What names do you think of that might fit this fish? PAGE 24 _coarsely marbled with a darker hue_: What is the meaning of _marbled_? PAGE 25 _covered with water_: The author means that the _rock_ is not always covered with water, not the _hole_ under the rock. Of course the hole is always built so that it is full of water, else the fish would perish at low tide. PAGE 27