Kincs Business BY M A RTH A S. HOOKER
Barney the Barnacle by Kay Gudnason Barney differs from a shrimp in that once he has built his little house around him he has to remain inside of it for the rest of his life. Barney did have a time in his life when he could swim about. He hatch ed from an egg in his parent’s brood pouch, (each barnacle is both male and female), and he swam about free February is the month for hearts | | since Valentines Day comes in this f s month. The Bible has much to say I 4 about hearts. Let us discover some | | of these things. Place the words in 4 i column two in the correct blanks in | I column one. Then match with the re- 4 • ferences in column three. The result f | will be a list of Bible hearts and the * I location of each in the Bible. (Refer- | I ences may be used more than once.) | 1. fie an ... Ezek. 36:26 2. P .e war 3. w....le ken .... Ex. 35:22 t f M A T CH ING HEARTS !
T 'HE little seashore animal to be con sidered today is not really in the seashell family, although he lives in the sea and builds a shell house to live in. His name is Barney the Bar nacle. Barnacles grow so thick on most surf-washed rocks that you are hardly able to keep from stepping on their little houses as you climb about to look at them. They are as sharp as bits of glass, so be careful not to cut your feet. In some places you will find bar nacles and mussels living so closely packed together, trying to maintain their hold on the rocky surface, that you wonder which one will win out. In other places you will find cliffs completely covered with barnacles, little pyramid shaped houses looking as if they had been sculptured right out of the stone. They look as dead as the stone, and it is hard to believe that very-much-alive little animals built those litle stony houses and live in them. But if you watch when the tide rises and covers them, you will see activity. Each little animal will open the trap-door of his home, reach out, and grab some food from the wa ter. What looks like little fairy wands waving about in the water are really the little creature’s legs, (he has 12 of them!) and he is kicking food into his mouth as he lies, head first, glued to the bottom of his house. Isn’t that a strange way to live? But Barney himself is strange, he is not a mollusk, as little seashell ani mals are called, but is a crustacean, the family to which crabs, lobsters, and shrimp belong. In fact, he looks somewhat like a tiny shrimp. But
and two tiny shells. Barney enjoyed swimming with these for a short while and then he decided to settle down, build a permanent home, and grow up into an adult barnacle. Some barnacles have a much more exciting life than Barney’s. They travel all over the world, even though, like Barney,.they cannot leave their houses. Some of them attach their homes upon the backs of shells, crabs, sea-turtles, and even whales. My, but it must be fun for the barnacles that live on whales! And probably the tough old whale doesn’t even know they are there. It is an economical way for the barnacles to travel, too, and they are always assured of a fresh supply of food particles in the chang ing waters. Some of the barnacles that like to travel cement themselves to floating timber, and others to the bottoms of ships. Those that do this cause a great deal of trouble and expense, for the ships must be put into dry dock and scraped free of them and repainted. Barnacles can actually retard the speed of ships in the water by attach ing in such numbers that they add tons to its weight, as well as provid ing a good anchoring place for sea weeds to grow and further impede the ship’s progress. But that is not the life Barney chose. He is a little home-loving creature. When he decided to settle down on a rock and build his house, his building site was very carefully selected. Not just the first cleared spot on which he landed would do for him! He tested and examined many places, moving from one to the other
on .... Deut. 20:8
4. 5.
cle. St...
6. Trou...... 7. bro 8. ....rd 9. fa....t 10. t... ..er 11. w... e 12. f... ..fui 13. m._ ...y
sh ... John 14:1 per .... Eph. 4:32 ear .... Ex. 28:3 err .... Prov. 15:13 ew .... Isa. 61:1 bled .... Matt. 5:8 ur .... Ps. 9:1
it
17:9
14. 15. 16.
feet d
ho ill " .... Ps. 51:17 .... Isa. 35>:4 ha .... Ps. 51:10 in -- .... Ps. 101:4 is ... Ezek. 3:7 rit ...... Ps. 32:11
17. w......ina 18. c._..t.... e
19. n...
ly for about three months. At first, as a new-born barnacle, he was encased in a little ball of fat which helped to keep him afloat as well as to nourish him. He had one eye, six legs, and a flimsy shell. Then he changed shape, and grew, and molted, and developed 12 legs, two eyes, a pair of antennae,
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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