"Well, you might swim better, dear Mr. Crawfish," said polite Mr. Oyster, "but you have wonderful legs and claws. Now I have always led a quiet, peaceable life, and I don't want any claws to fight with. And I have so much better insides—pardon me for saying so, Mr. Crawfish—that I don't need those claws to tear up my food before I swallow it. But I do want to swim.
"Now, it seems to me, that if we would take that horny stuff your shell is made of, I could divide it up into little pieces, to shingle the outside of my soft body to protect it. Then I wouldn't be afraid to come out of my shell house."
"Yes," said Mr. Crawfish, becoming enthusiastic over his friend's plans, "and when you got to be a bird you could use these same shingles for scales on your legs and feet, and to make the beak of your nose and your feathers and quills. Then, if you should happen, later on, to turn into a little boy you could use that material for finger nails and hair."
"And these scales," says Mr. Oyster, "will need to be tough and smooth and round at the edges like a boy's finger nails, so they won't get broken easily."
"But what are you going to do with that bony shell of yours?" asked Mr. Lobster. "It seems a great pity to throw it away. Mother Nature tells us never to throw anything away. And it's a perfectly good shell."
"You're right. Just let's think. I have got to fasten these strong muscles of mine to something. I notice you can't move anything, unless you have something to rest the lever on."
Of course Mr. Oyster is right. A boy can't pry up a stone unless he has something to rest the pryer or lever on. There was a man a long time ago who said he could move the world if he had something big and strong enough to rest a lever on. And he was right.
"I can pry myself through the water backward," says Mr. Lobster, "but if I tried to swim by moving my tail to right and left I'd break in two. Besides, my flipper tail would have to be set up on edge for the rudder to steer myself with, and I would have to have paddles on the sides to swim forward as well as backward."
"Oh, I get the whole idea now," declared Mr. Oyster, getting quite excited, "I'll take this limy shell of mine and put it on the inside, then I will have just the thing to fasten my muscles to. You see I fasten hinge muscles to it now, so I know how. I will have to divide it into jointed rings like the earthworm's muscle rings, or my
