After staring and chattering a long while , boats came off to examine the mystery . Loads of scientific gentlemen worked away at me with microscopes , hammers , acids , and all sorts of tests , to decide what I was ; and kept up such a fire of long words that I was ` most dead . They could n't make up their minds ; and meanwhile news of the strange thing spread , and every sort of person came to see me . The gulls kept telling them the joke ; but they did n't understand , and I got on capitally . Every night I dined and fed and frolicked till dawn ; then put on my sea-weeds , and lay still to be stared at . I wanted some one to come and live on me ; then I should be equal to the island of the polypes . But no one came , and I was beginning to be tired of fooling people , when I was fooled myself . An old sailor came to visit me : he had been a whaler , and he soon guessed the secret . But he said nothing till he was safely out of danger ; then he got all ready , and one day , as I lay placidly in the sun , a horrible harpoon came flying through the air , and sunk deep into my back . I forgot every thing but the pain , and dived for my life . Alas ! the tide was low ; the harbor-bar could n't be passed ; and I found hundreds of boats chasing me , till I was driven ashore down there on the flats . Big and strong as we are , once out of water , and we are perfectly helpless . I was soon despatched ; and my bones left to whiten on the sand . This was long ago ; and , one by one , all my relics have been carried off or washed away . My jaw-bone has been used as a seat here , till it 's worn out ; but I could n't crumble away till I 'd told some one my story . Remember , child , pride goeth before a fall . '' Then , with a great creak , the bone tumbled to pieces ; and found a peaceful grave in the long green grass . X . A STRANGE ISLAND .
One XXXXX I lay rocking in my boat , reading a very famous book , which all children know and love ; and the name of which I 'll tell you by and by .
day fire goeth gulls hammers harbor-bar harpoon jaw-bone relics sea-weeds