Mr. Collier handed one of the water glasses to the boatman. It was formed like a deep square box with a glass window for a bottom, and a specially prepared crystal had been used.
"That's an improvement on the old kind, Early Bird," he said; "what do you think of it?"
The Bermudian darky looked through the glass critically.
"Yes, sah," he said, "thar's no compah'son 'tween the two. The bottom looks bettah through
that glass than it does when yo' down theh yo'self. Ah used to do a little diving at one time, but the reefs nevah showed up that cleah. It would be a big thing fo' the boats that take tourists out if they could have glasses like that one there."
"It would be, perhaps," the scientist said, laughing, "but they could almost build a boat for what one of these would cost."
"Isn't that the most gorgeous thing you ever saw!" cried Colin, as he set his eye to the glass, which Early Bird handed him. "There's no garden on land with such colors as that."
"There are no flowers in the garden you're looking at, remember," his friend reminded him.
"Don't need them," said the boy. "Look at that tall purple plant waving to and fro. Isn't that a sea-fan?"
"Yes," his companion answered, "that's a sea-fan, but it isn't a plant. It's a kind of coral."