"Little Elfie clapped her hands when she beheld some lovely medusæ dancing lightly along on the surface, their feathery tentacles drifting idly on the current; so the fairy changed her to a crystal globe of a jelly-fish, propelled by several tiny oars, like spun glass, that reflected all colors of the rainbow in flashing motion.
"'O you silly bubble!' exclaimed Small; 'I had rather be a herring than that,' and he immediately began to swim about a pretty herring.
"'As to that, I believe I should like to try a state of lobsterhood,' said Perke; and his desire was at once gratified. The thoughtless children had forgotten the importance of retaining their magic trumpets, in case they should ever need them again; so, when they changed forms, the godmother's gifts were carelessly allowed to sink to the bottom, and the water spirit laughed triumphantly.
"'Now I have you, Madam Pug,' she said to herself. 'Your pets are in the sea; let me see you reclaim them.'
"The trumpets lay on the bottom beside a rock, where there lived a colony of oysters. The oysters are good-natured, save when a hungry star-fish pokes a ray into their shells to scoop out the delicious-flavored inmate; then they are very apt to close the doors smartly with a sudden clap that snips off the intruder's paw, leaving the star-fish to hobble away, and grow a new one. The grandfather of the colony had listened to all that transpired between the fairy and her visitors with much interest; and now that the trumpets fell to the bottom, he began to wonder how they were to be rescued from harm.
"Presently a cockle came skipping gayly along by means of a beautiful scarlet foot, protruded from between the valves of the shell for the purpose of locomotion; and the grandfather oyster hailed him for a chat.
"'If you would only push the trumpets nearer we might swallow them,' urged the former, when he had explained matters.
"'Wait a bit,' said the cockle, 'until I fetch a few of my brothers, who are prowling about here somewhere.'
"He darted off, and soon returned with the requisite assistance. So the cockles nimbly pushed and rolled the trumpets close to the oysters.
"'Can you accommodate the others, my sons?' inquired the grandfather of two no less plump children.