The Beautiful Way I Am Old Jack's Boat

Go on, Salty!

# Come with me, we're off to the sea

# To where I used to play

# Looking back when I was a boy

# And the fun we had each day

# All through the cobbles and through the streets

# Playing in the sun

# Friends to meet with games and the treats

# Adventures just begun

# Stories from a magical world

# Washed in by the sea

# Meet the rockpool creatures there

# It's amazing what you see

# Looking back when I was a boy

# Shrimps and starfish Crabs and snails

# In twinkly rockpool tales. #

OLD JACK LAUGHS

# Those lovely rockpool tales. #

Oh, hello!

Salty and I have just been looking at our beards.

Salty's rather pleased because her beard is longer than mine.

Well, Salty my girl, my beard is just as lovely in its own way.

And it's good that we all look different.

It makes life more interesting, doesn't it?

Which reminds me... of a windy day once

when Little Sailor Sue's hair looked very different indeed.

It all happened when I was a boy.

In a twinkly time long, long ago...

..I used to run down to the beach as often as I could,

meeting up with my best friends, Little Ernie and Little Sailor Sue.

There was one day, I recall, when a travelling fair had come to Staithes

and we had all been to visit it. And guess what.

Ernie had won a coconut at the coconut shy.

Now, in those days, a coconut was a very special treat.

When the coconut was cracked open, Ernie shared it with us.

The fruit inside was rather chewy, but very tasty.

And the coconut shell was hairy on one side and smooth on the other.

When we finished eating, we ran along the beach

clutching our pieces of coconut shell like they were precious treasures,

rather hairy precious treasures.

This sea wind tugged at our clothes

and blew our hair about wildly.

Sue wanted to see her wild hair, so she ran to the rockpools

because sometimes, when the water is still,

it's all shiny like a mirror and you can see your face in it.

Ernie and I followed her, but when we caught up with her,

she was staring into a rockpool

and she no longer had her piece of coconut shell.

She'd accidentally dropped it in the rockpool.

As we gazed deep down into the glittery waters,

a magical world appeared before our eyes.

On this particular day, a visitor had been washed into the rockpool.

It was a shy and shaggy little grey sea slug

that was looking for a place to hide. SALTY BARKS

Yes, Salty, yes, it wanted to hide.

You see, it had been looking at a lovely stone

that was smooth and shiny as a mirror,

when suddenly it saw itself for the first time.

"Oh, my goodness," it said to itself.

"What a funny-looking creature I am."

And it thought that the other sea creatures might laugh at it.

And that's why it was looking for a hiding place.

Just then, the little sea slug heard someone giggling close by, so it hid.

The giggles were coming from Sally the Starfish.

Buster the Crab scuttled over.

"What's all the laughing about?" he snapped.

"Oh, hi, Buster," said Sally, with a beaming smile.

"Andrew is scratching my back and it's terrifically tickly."

You like being tickled, don't you?

Yes, she does.

"I wish I could have my back scratched in a tickly way,"

said Buster, "But it isn't easy to have your back scratched

"when you're inside a shell.

"I like my shell, bless my pincers I do,

"but sometimes I would really like to crawl out of it for a bit."

"Well, why don't you?" said Sally.

"Then, Andrew could scratch your back too."

Buster thought that this was a good idea.

"Isn't it lucky that I'm a hermit crab?" he chuckled,

scuttling off to get changed.

"It means I can crawl out of my shell on very special occasions.

"Ha-ha!"

Well, soon Buster had wriggled out of his shell.

"Right," he said, stretching,

"I'm ready to have my back scratched now, Andrew."

Andrew gave Buster his best tentacle tickle,

which made Buster laugh so much

that his pincers clattered.

After a while, Buster felt tired from all this laughing.

"Oh, time to get back in my shell," he said.

"I'm tickled out! Ha-ha-ha!"

But when he attempted to nudge his way back into his shell,

he had a bit of a surprise.

He heard a squeak.

And a little head peeked out of the shell rather shyly.

A little head with feelers attached to it.

"Who are you?

"And what are you doing in my shell?" snapped Buster, rather crossly.

But the creature didn't answer.

"Come out of there at once!" said Buster.

"Um, I'm...I'm s-s-sorry," whispered the creature.

"But I can't come out."

"Can't come out? Well, tickle my pincers, what a cheek!"

Buster was very shocked.

"Let me try," Sally told Buster.

Then she spoke to the mysterious creature in her most serious voice.

CLEARS THROAT

"Excuse me, that shell belongs to my friend Buster," she said,

"so you'll have to come out."

But the creature wouldn't budge.

"Go away, please," it said.

"I'm not moving."

Sally sighed, she didn't know what else to do.

"Perhaps you'd better forget about your old shell, Buster,

"and find a new one," she said.

"You can choose one from my shell collection if you like."

"Well, a new shell, hm..."

Buster thought for a moment.

Yes, he quite liked the idea of a new shell,

so off he went to look at Sally's collection.

And all the rockpoolers went along to see which shell he would choose.

And what a wonderful selection Sally had.

Buster tried a long, thin razorfish shell first.

He quite liked the stripey pattern.

But it was rather sticky-outy and far from comfy.

"I like this one, it's an interesting shape," he said.

But the entrance, it was too small and - Ooh! Eeh! Aah! Ohh! -

yes, he got stuck.

Andrew and Sally had to pull him out.

"Finding a new shell isn't as easy as I thought."

And then suddenly Buster caught sight of the perfect shell.

"Wait!" cried Sally, "That isn't one of my shells."

At that moment, Sydney the Snail popped out.

"Excuse me?" he said, frowning.

"This is my shell, so keep your pincers off."

"Oh, sorry!" said Buster. And he sidled away.

Just then he noticed an extremely unusual shell.

One that he had overlooked.

The unusual shell was quite hairy looking.

SALTY BARKS Yes, yes, Salty, you're right,

it was Little Sailor Sue's piece of coconut shell.

Well done, Salty.

"That isn't one of my shells either,"

said Sally, looking at the piece of coconut shell.

"I've never seen anything like it before."

"Hello-ee!

"Hello-oh-oh-eeh!"

Buster checked, but there was no-one inside.

And then he wriggled his way in.

"Hm, er, does it suit me?" Buster asked.

"It's definitely different," said Andrew,

but when Buster tried to move, he couldn't.

The hairy shell was just too slippy-offy.

"Oh, it's no use," sighed Buster.

"I'm just going to have to ask for my old shell back.

"Perhaps if I ask very politely, whoever is in there will come out."

So off he went back to his old shell.

He knocked on it three times.

And then he asked the creature inside to come out.

"I'm not moving!" said the little creature,

"because if I come out, everyone will laugh at the funny way I look."

"But we all look rather funny," said Sally, waving her starfish arms.

"I'm shaped like a star with lots of tiny suckers on my arms."

"And I look sort of see-through," said Sheena the Shrimp,

bobbing around happily.

"I'm the funniest," said Andrew the Anemone.

"I look like a blob of jelly when I suck my tentacles in."

The stranger inside the shell really wanted to see

all these funny looking creatures,

so it came out.

And guess what.

It was the grey sea slug.

"Hello there," said Sally,

admiring his wonderfully shaggy appearance.

"Wow, you look amazing!"

"Amazing? Me?" said the grey sea slug.

"Oh, do you think so?"

"Yes!" cried all the rockpoolers.

And then it glanced down at its shaggy-looking body.

"Ah, er, well, actually, I suppose I do look rather amazing."

And suddenly the grey sea slug felt rather pleased

with the way it looked.

And besides, it had made lots of new, unusual-looking friends.

"Do you mind if I have my shell back now?" asked Buster.

"I know it might seem funny for a creature to keep its house

"on its back, but that's just the beautiful way I am."

"Oh, yes, of course. Have your shell back at once,"

said the little grey sea slug. "I don't need to hide any more."

So all the rockpoolers played together for the rest of the day.

So, Ernie and I kept staring into the rockpool,

but we couldn't see Little Sue's piece of coconut shell.

And then Ernie spotted it.

And he reached down and plucked it out of the seaweed.

That made Little Sue very happy.

Just then, another gust of wind blew Sue's long hair out

in all directions and she saw herself in the shiny surface of the water.

"Arrgh!" she said, "I look like a mighty lion!"

And she chased me and Ernie all the way back down the beach...

..where we played for the rest of the day

until the tide started to come in and covered the rockpool,

like a great seaweedy blanket.

You know, Salty, my girl, I don't think it really matters if your beard

is the longest or the shortest or whether you are a whiskery dog,

a starfish or a shaggy-looking sea slug

or an old fisherman like me.

It's just good that we are all so different.

So why don't you join us for some more Rockpool Tales next time?

Goodbye.

Ha-ha! Good girl.

Come on, Salty.