Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/151

134 of minerals and shells there, and now he was planning to have a museum of his own. He begged an old tin box from his aunt, and took it with him on his walks, stopping every now and then to put in a new treasure. The latest thing, he had found was a hermit-crab. Did you ever see one? It is not a very nice-looking creature. It eats up some kinds of shell-fish, and then lives in the empty shell; and you are surprised to pick up a big, spiral whelk-shell, and find crab's claws coming out of it!

Paul was much pleased with his "find," but he was not sure about putting it into the tin box, because it was alive. He sat down on a bit of gray rock to think it over, and then, for the first time, he became aware that he was very, very hungry. Also, that he was a long way from home.

He gazed around him, and saw that this part of the beach was new to him.