Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-04-26


breath,
And last though not least, noisy, mischiev-
GUS Will.
Five minutes. no more, not q sound in the
room,
But stealing on tiptOe, leaned over the chair,
And found sure enough, grandmamma fast
asleep!
Presbyterian Journal
House Cleaning Under the Sea.
BY OLIVE THoRNE.
There's curious little fellow living
in the sea, whose chief business seems
to be house cleaning. Ii is no affair of
brooms and busters, kalsominers and
paper hangers; he is completely equip
ped for the work with pair of scrub
bling brushes. Water, of course, is al
ways ready to his hand, his house is
just big enough to cover him, and near
ly every moment that he is not occu-
pied in getting his dinner, he is busily
engaged in scrubbirg his shell house.
His brushes never get out of the way,
for they are fastened to HMM fact,
they are at the ends of his first pair Of
legs. Into every Granny and angle,
under and over, inside and outside his
house, he vigorously thrusts them, TAX
ing off every particle of dirt, and keep
ing it in state of beautiful polish.
These scrubbing legs are curious af-
fairs. Each one is covered with hairs
standing out all round, like the bristles
on u bottle-brush, and at the end Of
each is a sort Of hand, or pair of pinch
ers, which is used to pick off any object
which the brushes will not remove.
When his house is in perfect order, he
turns his attention to his legs and his
long antenna, and never rests till each
one is clean and ready for use. This is
done, not by his scrubbing- brushes,
but by his foot jaws.
This neat little fellow is q prawn;
and perhaps you have seen some of his
relatives on the table, with their tails
curled up under their bodies, and
turned of bright red color But you
must not think red is his color when in
life. HOLSTERS, crabs, and other shelly
creatures dress themselves in red for the
table, though in life they content them
selves with modest grays and browns.
The prawn when alive is translucent
that is, the light shines through him, so
that sometimes it seems as if he were
Lighted up inside, like a lantern. Then
his shell house-so red when cooked
is a pretty sort of greenish gray
color. with stripes of black and
buff, and bits of shining white, while
his legs are ornamented with bands of
blue and gold color. His tail, which is
also beautifully colored, consists of
plates that slide back and forth over
each OF -er, and when spread out make
broad and strong sort of fan. They
are edged and dotted with pale red and
brown, and have tiny red stars scattered
over them. In fact, there is hardly a
creature of the sea-where there are SO
many strange objects-more delicately
and beautifully dre ssed than the little
three or four inch long prawn.
When at home in the ocean, he de-
lights in dark, deep holes to live in, and
when brought up from these hooks his
colors are seen IN all their beauty, but
they are too delicate to endure the vul-
gar light of day. So, although he is an
interesting little fellow to have in an
aquarium, his bright colors all fade out,
and he looks SO much like shadow
gliding about that he has been compared
to ghost.
When a prawn is seen in the evening,
by candle light, his great eyes-which
stand up Oh top of his deadlock like
balls of fire, as you have, perhaps, seen
the eyes of cat.
He's an inquisitive little fellow, and
very much interested in everything that
is going on. If we watch his ways
with interest, he does the same by us,
and no doubt he wonders great deal
what sort of monsters we are. He will
dart up to the top of the water, and
stay there long time, starting at one,
but if slight movement is made
towards him, slap goes his broad tail,
and back he springs out of sight, into
some Quiet nook, In an instant, or he
will seize hold Of some weed at the
bottom of the aquarium, and gaze GU
riously to see what the monster will do
next
Jerking himself backwards is favor
tie movement of his, and he does it by
means of his strong, fan-like tail.
When he desires to retire suddenly, he
bends joint in his body and brings
his tail up with sharp slap on the
water, which, of course, sends him
quickly back.
He can walk, however, if he likes; in
deed he is particularly we'll provided
with legs; he would not need more if he
was made to spend his life on foot.
Five pairs he has for use, and five pairs
for show, called false legs. He can
walk about on the ten useful legs, and
paddle about in the water-when not in
hurry the ten false ones, which.
are behind the others.
The first pair of feet are the scrub