not going to move a fin to find out anything more!" said the others,
and swam away.

"But I'm going to," said the smallest, and plunged down into deep water.

But the little fish was a considerable distance from the place where "that
long sunken thing" lay. He looked and searched in a direction down in the deep water. Never before
had he imagined the world to be so big. The herring swam in great masses, each school of them shining
like a mighty boat of silver; the mackerel also swam together and looked even more magnificent. There
were fishes of all shapes and with markings in all colors. Jellyfish, like half-transparent flowers,
simply lay back and let the currents carry them along. Great plants grew up from the bottom of the ocean,
as did fathom-high grassand palm-shaped trees, every leaf beset with shining shellfish.

At last the little fish saw a long, dark streak way down and swam toward it; but
it was neither fish nor cable; it was the gunwale of a large sunken vessel, the upper and lower decks
of which had been broken in two by the force of the ocean. The little fish swam inside, where the many
people who had perished with the sinking of the ship had since been washed away, except for two - young
woman lay stretched out with a little child in her arms. The water rocked them to and fro, and they
seemed to be asleep. The little fish became quite frightened, for he didn't know that they never again
could awaken. Seaweed hung like cultivated foliage over the rail