"Good," said the Sun. "Do you see those tiny spongy growths along the edge of the mud—those funny little things like jelly-fish. I have noticed that some of them haven't quite made up their minds yet whether to be plants, or fish. They have begun to wriggle and squirm about in the mud, and a plant, you know, is supposed to take root and stay in one place. Don't you think we ought to help them to make up their minds?" "Yes," said the Ocean. "What do you want me to do?" "Well, suppose you gently wash them loose from the shore, and let them drift for a while in your nice warm salt water. Maybe they will get to like it." "I'll try it," said the Ocean. So he did, and after a time the tiny creatures got to like the water so much that they lived in it all the time, instead of just squirming about in the mud. And as thousands of years went by, some of them grew little shell-houses to live in, and some of them fastened themselves to rocks, like oysters, and waited for food to drift right into their mouths, but others grew fins and tails, so that they could swim about in search of something to eat. It took a very long time of course, but after a while, as they grew and grew, and changed and changed, the Ocean came to be full of all sorts of fish, large and small. And the Ocean was very proud of them. CHAPTER II THE FISH THAT GOT STUCK IN THE MUD WHEN Mother Nature came back to take a look at things she was delighted to see how well they were going. "The trees and plants and grass are doing nicely," she said, "and so are the fish. Now we must get some animals on land, and you, Ocean, must attend to it for me." "What can _I_ do?" the Ocean asked. "I haven't any animals to put on the land." "Then you must put some fish there, and I will see that they are turned into animals." "But fish can't live on the land," said the Ocean. "They haven't any lungs to breathe air with. They can only breathe in the water." "I know that," said Mother Nature, smiling. "You just do as I tell you, and leave the rest to me." "What do you want me to do?" asked the Ocean. "Tell the Wind to blow a great storm, and wash some of your fish up into the salt marshes. And after that, have your waves build a wall of sand along the edge of the marshes, so that the fish and the water you have washed in cannot get out again." "I will do it," said the Ocean, "but I do not see any sense in it." "You will, when I have finished," Mother Nature said. So the Ocean spoke to the Wind, and told him to blow his hardest, and the Wind howled and shrieked with joy and drove the waves before him, and they danced and rolled up into the great wide marshes and carried thousands and thousands of fish with them. Then other waves came, carrying sand, and with the sand they built a wall all along the edge of the marshes, so that the water in the marshes could not get out again, but stayed there, spread out like a great shallow inland sea. Then Mother Nature said to the Sun: