The Pearl.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIX, Issue 22, 28 May 1913, Page 9

The Pearl.

On a pleasant day in a gleaming, glowing, rose-eoloured ocean, a trusting oyster opens its shell and takes into its system some sea water and its other favourite form of sustenance. Then, night coming on and the azure and gold of the 'big pond fading to silver and lavender, the oyster withdraws into its shell and closes up for the night. All very well, and possibly Mr. Oyster thinks he is entirely safe between his nacreous walls, which have managed to imprison for their own enhancement something of the iridescent beauty of the sea. But the unsuspecting bivalve has taken in a lodger unawares. A wandering bit of life, of the sort sometimes known to medical students as a “gurm,” has chosen to seek shelter with it. A parasitic entity looking for a home has ensconced itself within the pearly walls of the oyster or perhaps a promising larva has floated in and found a dwelling place. The loftiest example of tho animal kingdom, man, may well take example from the developments which follow. The oyster naturally resents the intrusion into his home, but he wastes no time in inefficient lamenting, nor does ho institute militant proceedings for the ejectment of the parasite. Instead, the oyster resolves to make the best of a bad situation, and to do all in his power to transform the ugly intruder into a thing of beauty. The moral lesson involved in this circumstance is to be found in the beautiful result which this noble attitude on the part of the oyster. Layer after layer of mother o’ pearl secreted by the oyster is thrown around the parasite or larva, which is presently I encased in a beautiful pearly shell, that ! gleams a wonderful greyish white or an exquisite iridescent pink or violet, or 1 perhaps even deepens to a. strangely! lovely black. In reality the foreign sub-! stance has been embalmed. I Time passes, and the intruding para-’ site or egg has long been dead and buried, mummified in a splendid outer wrapping, when one day certain strangd ’ creatures dive down into the sea and f snatch the oyster from its resting-place!.' The oyster is borne to a shed with many companion oysters, ami at last is opened. I A magnificent pearl Iras been found in the oyster, and the pearl is nothing more than the beautiful ease which the oyster has built around the lowly parasite. As a brilliant French writer has said, “the ornament associated in alt ages with beauty and riches is nothing but the brilliant sarcophagus of a worm.”