For his hard shell, which had served him as a shield against his enemies, was now melted and soft, and was no longer of any use to him. He was at the mercy of the whole sea, which was indignant at his new wickedness. Thenceforth he must slink and hide away wherever he could, an outcast thief. He became the Hermit Crab, whom to-day one finds borrowing the shells which other tiny creatures have abandoned, creeping away into dim corners, and always carrying his home upon his back, because he is afraid to venture his poor, unprotected body out of doors. Neptune decreed that the wicked Crab needed no other punishment worse than this. As for Wavilocks, she also had been punished enough. The beautiful green hair which had been her pride was scorched into an ugly brown. Sobbing with shame, she cut it off--all its splendid length, and tossed it away into the sea. Sometimes you may find strands of it nowadays, washed ashore by the tide. Long, long afterward her green hair grew again; but for months and years she was laughed at and teased about her short mop of brown hair, so unfashionable in the sea-kingdom. A sad little mermaid she was in those days. For not only had she lost her wavy locks, but the lovely rope of pearls was gone forever, scattered among the jewels of the sky. You can see some of them to this day if you look hard among the flashing stars; bright jewels they are, but they do not twinkle like the others. The Big Crab now watches over them also with his other treasures, and it would have to be a sly thief indeed who could steal them back again. Wavilocks must go without any necklace, although the other mermaids wear theirs proudly. Yes, she has no necklace at all. For what do you think became of the stars which she went so far to steal and had so sad a time in gathering? Wavilocks had clung closely to the conch shell which held her stolen treasure during all the terrible time of her fall down the silver staircase. And when she came to the bottom of the sea she still held it fast. But alas! When the poor little scorched mermaid came to look at the stars which she had hoped to wear about her neck, she found that they had sadly changed. The shell was full of something living, something squirming and cold. One by one she took out the five-pointed stars which had been so beautiful, and they had come alive; they were star-fish! The first star-fish that had ever been seen in the ocean. How Wavilocks screamed when the moist, writhing feelers touched her hand! So this was the end of the lovely necklace which she had hoped to wear so proudly,--a conch shell full of ugly, wriggling sea-stars. She tossed them away as far as she could, and fled sobbing to her poor old father, who tried to comfort her, and forgot to punish her for disobeying him.