"And you were not laughing?"
"Not a bit of it. That little fellow, I suppose, lived a thousand million years ago; may as well say a thousand as anything."
"I can't see how you can tell," said Daisy, looking puzzled.
"That was a strange old time, when he was swimming about—or when most of them were. There were no trees, to speak of; and no grass or anything but sea-weed and mosses; and no living things but fishes and oysters and such creatures?"
"Where were the beasts then, and the birds?"
"They were not made yet. That's the reason, I suppose, there was no grass for them to eat."
Daisy looked down at the trilobite; and looked profoundly thoughtful. That little, shiny, black, stony thing, that had lived and flourished so many ages ago! Once more she looked up into the Captain's face to see if he were trifling with her. He shook his head.
"True as a book, Daisy."
"But Capt. Drummond, please, how do you know it?"
"Just think, Daisy,—this little fellow frolicked away in the mud at the bottom of the sea, with his half moons of eyes—and round him swam all sorts of fishes that do not live now-a-days; fishes with plate armour like himself; everybody was in armour."