life in the Lagoon, was acknowledged as the great social leader of
Coral-Land.

The Sun-Fish presented Sammy to the Trunk-Fish, (so named from his
curious shape), and the Trunk-Fish in turn introduced him to the
Globe-Fish and the Porcupine-Fish, and they made him acquainted with
the family of scarlet fish, and some handsome gold-fish. Two of the
gold-fish, called respectively Gay and Gilt, were particularly
friendly to Sammy, who soon found them much more entertaining than the
worthy, but somewhat prosy Pilot.

So, as the days went on, our hero spent more and more of his time in
the company of his new friends, while the Pilot was content, now that
his duty was done, to gossip with the Sun-Fish, or betake himself to
some particularly good feeding ground of which he knew. Coral-Land
abounded in quantities of good things such as fishes love, and Sammy
soon grew fat, for Gay and Gilt were much less greedy than the Pilot,
and always shared their meals evenly with their friend. It did not
take him long to learn what to enjoy and what to avoid, both in the
way of food and acquaintances, and he found it a most useful form of
knowledge.

Thus he learned to beware of the graceful jelly-fishes who were
constantly to be met floating about, their long tentacles streaming
behind, and their umbrella-shaped disks expanding and contracting as
they swam, for he knew that the Jelly-Fish was a cousin of the
Sea-Anemone, and that its tentacles could sting most unpleasantly. So
he admired them from a distance, and very beautiful they were,
especially at night, when their gleaming phosphorescent bodies lighted
up the darkness of the sleeping Lagoon.