"Certainly," said the Sun. "I will attend to it at once." So he turned to the Ocean.
"Ocean," he said, "wouldn't you like to have some fish swimming about in you?"
"Indeed I should," said the Ocean. "I am very big, and I have plenty of room for all the fish you can make."
"Good," said the Sun. "Do you see those tiny spongy growths along the edge of the mud—those funny little things like jelly-fish. I have noticed that some of them haven't quite made up their minds yet whether to be plants, or fish. They have begun to wriggle and squirm about in the mud, and a plant, you know, is supposed to take root and stay in one place. Don't you think we ought to help them to make up their minds?"
"Yes," said the Ocean. "What do you want me to do?"
"Well, suppose you gently wash them loose from the shore, and let them drift for a while in your nice warm salt water. Maybe they will get to like it."
"I'll try it," said the Ocean.
So he did, and after a time the tiny creatures got to like the water so much that they lived in it all the time, instead of just squirming about in the mud. And as thousands of years went by, some of them grew little shell-houses to live in, and some of them fastened themselves to rocks, like oysters, and waited for food to drift right into their mouths, but others grew fins and tails, so that they could swim about in search of something to eat. It took a very long time of course, but after a while, as they grew and grew, and changed and changed, the Ocean came to be full of all sorts of fish, large and small. And the Ocean was very proud of them.