1.Perhaps you have read the story of two little boys who began to quarrel about the colour of a lobster.One declared that it was black,the other that it was red;the fact being that it is nearly black until it is boiled,and then turns bright red.
2.So the lobster changes in a very funny way after he is dead;but he and his cousins the crab,the prawn,the crayfish,and others,also pass through some curious changes during their life which you may like to hear about.
3.The lobster lives under water among the rocks near the shore.He is covered all over with a hard shell like a coat of mail,and so we call him a shellfish;but although he lives in the water,he is not a fish at all.
4.When he was quite a little fellow,his coat of mail was very little too.He grew very fast,but his hard coat did not grow at all,so it soon became too small for his body,which filled every nook and corner of it.
5.Then he stopped eating,and hid himself in a hole among the rocks.In a short time his body became so thin that he had plenty of room in his shell.This was just what he wanted.
6.And now began a great struggle to get out of his shell.He twisted and wriggled about with all his might,until the shell burst down the back.The shells of his claws burst at their joints,and he drew them off just as you would draw off a pair of gloves.Next he drew off the helmet that covered his head,and thus he got out of his shell.
7.Had his brother lobsters met him in this helpless state,they would soon have eaten him up;so he took care to keep out of their way,and lay resting in his hole.
A new suit of armour then began to grow.A kind of glue mixed with lime came out through his thick skin,and in three or four days this glue became hard-a new shell was formed.
8.During the time his new shell was growing,the lobster had kept his body full of water,and swelled it out as much as he could,so that the new coat of mail was roomy and comfortable.He then came out of his hiding-place stronger than ever,and was ready to attack any of his brothers that might fall in his way.
9.During the first year of his life,he grew so fast that he had to get six new shells.In the second year,he got the same number.He did not grow so quickly after that,for in his third year he changed his shell only four times.Three new suits were enough for him in his fourth year;and now that he has grown older,he is less fond of new clothes,and will be contented with one suit each year for the rest of his life.
10.Lobsters are great fighters,and when they are caught the fishermen tie their claws with a piece of string to keep them from killing one another.Some-times,in the course of a battle,a lobster gets one of his claws badly hurt;and as he has no doctor to bind up his wounds,he has to attend to them him self.His remedy is very simple but very thorough,for he just breaks off the injured claw at the next joint.
11.The loss of a limb is not so serious a matter for a lobster as it would be for most other animals.Indeed a lobster will often shake off his claws when he is frightened by anything,such as a sudden noise.In a short time a new claw begins to grow from the stump of the old one.Next time he changes his coat the new claw gets a complete sheath of armour,and although it never grows so large as the others,it is ready for use once more.
