"Why, Uncle John, what a horrid, nasty thing! What is it?" said Maggie, as her uncle pushed back the crab, which was still trying to get out of the pool.
"There it goes again," said Uncle John,—"horrid, nasty thing! Poor little crab!"
"Maggie," said Bessie, "we must not say 'nasty.' Papa says it means what we do not mean, and it's unproper. Tell her about it, papa."
"No," said papa, "we will not have another lecture now. By and by you may tell her. I think you can remember all I have said."
"Now see, Maggie," said Uncle John, "you have hurt the crab's feelings so that he is in a great hurry to run off home. I am sure his mother thinks him a very handsome fellow, and he wants to go and tell her how he went on his travels and met a monster who had the bad taste to call him 'a horrid, nasty thing.'"
"Oh," said Bessie, laughing, "what a funny Uncle John you are! But I should think it would hurt the crab's feelings a great deal more to be poked with a stick, and not to be let to go home when he wants to. I don't believe he knows what Maggie says."
"I think you are about right, Bessie; I guess we must let him go."
So the next time the crab tried to come out of the pool, Uncle John put the stick by his claw, and when he took hold of it, lifted him out of the water and laid him on the sand. Away the crab scampered as fast as his long legs could carry him, moving in a curious side-long fashion, which amused the children very much. They followed him as near to the water's edge as they were allowed to go, and then ran back to their father.