The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-07-08
AN EMPTY HOUSE ON THE SHELF.

| W nile lne lily is sWeelcT lOT HARRY D hlSstS'
". Y. Independent.
AN EMPTY HOUSE ON THE SHELF.
On a shelf in my room stands an empty
house 1t has no cards in the window
announcing that it is for rent. In fact it
has no window, and the door stands open
from morning to night, inviting any pass
er-by to go in. 1t is built of bricks, and
was made by the former owner for his own
use He lived in it all his life, and it was
an elegant residence in those days, for he
took the incest care of it, and kept it clean
apd bright, though now it looks rather
dusty and neglected.
1t is not large house-not more than
an inch long, from front to back door, and
only little wider than the end of lead
pencil. 1t is rather an unusual shape,
too, something like a bit of the pencil,
with the front end all open for a door, and
the back end closed excepting Il small
opening for back door.
l said it was built of bricks, and so it
is, but they're very small-of coursc-no
larger than fine grains of sand. And it is
more beautiful than any house you ever
saw, for the tiny bricks are of different
colors, and are varied by minute bits of
shell, the whole making an elegant mo-
sale work, so fine and exquisite that we
need the aid of microscope to see it. The
mosaic work you have seen on ladies
ewelry is coarse and rough compared
with it. 1t is as delicate and trail as it is
pretty, for the wall is not much thicker
than paper.
This most wonderful house was built at
the bottom of the sea, for his own use, by
a creature even more marvellous and beau
tiful than his residence. A little fellow he
was, too as you may guess if he found
plenty of room to live in a house the size
of lead pencil.
If you had found this domicile when the
owner was at home, you would not have
seen the door left open in this careless
way He was Il modest and retiring per
sonage, who usually kept his home tightly
closed and rarely showed his head outside.
His door was white, and shaped much
like cork 1t fitted the end of his tube
shaped house, and he could move it up
and down, or push it entirely out when he
had fancy to look out. The cOrk-shaped
door was in fact the little fellows head,
and on the top of it he wore one of the
most elegant ornaments you can imagine.
han a nI
full combs, each shaped exactly like a
lady's back comb, and ofthe most brilliant
gold color The teeth of the combs
curved in as ours are made, and one might
easily suppose they were copies OF those
to be found in our shops. They had not
only the color of gold, but they had its
luster, and reflected the light as brilliant
ly as the most highly-polishcd metal.
Though they looked so much like
ladies combs, however, they had very
different use during the life of the owner.
Perhaps you'll be disgustcd to hear that
he used them as shovels, for he was as fond
of digging in sand as any Of you young
sters I'll tell you how he managed it.
You must know that, although he had a
private sandstone residence, he was so
fond of solitude that he preferred to dig
hole in the sand on the bottom of the ocean
and bury himself-house and all-out of
sight. Now the first thing to do when
one of these little fellows takes a fancy to
retire to private life is to get his golden
combs-or shovels, suppose we ought to
call them-in the right position for use,
for although they stand up on top of his
head edge to edge, there's only one way
to use them. If he is not on the right
side he turns himself in his house till he
brings his shovels to the proper position,
| when he pushes them out and thrusts
them into the sand. Then lifting them
up he brings out load of sand, which he
throws over his head on to the edge of his
house! Again he plunges them into the
sand and throws out another load, and so
he goes on till the hole is large enough to
suit him.
| The next puzzle to you would be how
he could get in, but it is no puzzle to him.
He merely hangs his droll little body out
of the door till its weight tips the whole
house over the edge of the hole. Then
he goes on with his digging, going deeper
and deeper, and making his house stand
straighter and straighter, till it is entirely
covered with sand.
Another curious thing about him is the
way he eats. He can't eat fish, you know,
they're too big, nor does he care for sea
mud, but he grows fat on tiny bits of
atoms in the sea-water which are too small
for us to see at all. All he has to do then
is to keep current of water running into
his mouth. From this he takes his food,
and the air he needs to breathe, and the
water runs out again.
This getting into cave is all the travel
ing the odd little fellow does; for he's .
contented creature, and any nice, quiet
spot under the sun where there's plenty of
sand is good enough for him.
But must tell you about the body of
this interesting little worm, for he is a
worm, and belongs to the family of Tube
Builders Back of his droll, cork-shaped
head he has pair of scarlet gills, shaped
like those on fishes. When he feels well
and sticks his head out of his house he
keeps these pretty gills in lively motion,
fluttering back and forth like pair of fans.
And that is not ALL Down each side of
his little, soft body he has row OF
knobs which look like warts as much
as anything, fifteen on side.
When studied through micro
scope these curious knobs are found
to be the most wonderful things about
him. Each one is divided into two parts
The back part swells out into soft sort OF
mop or spongy cushion, which is sup
, posed to be used to scrub out and polish
the inside of his beautiful house-though
that's only guess, by the way, for he was
never caught using them, and of course ne
won't tell anything about it. But the front