A small boy was walking along the seashore with

his grandfather one day and he said:

"I want to find a treasure that has washed ashore."

The grandfather smiled under his gray

mustache and pointed toward the sand.

"If you look very close," he said to the boy, "you

will find treasure."

The boy jumped with excitement.

"I'll be rich!" he cried out. He looked and looked

for hours, and then he said,

"I can't find any treasure, grandfather."

The grandfather calmly spoke.

"You will find treasure."

The boy looked for more hours and stopped to

rest. He was sweating profusely.

"I can't find any treasure," he complained.

"You will find treasures," said the grandfather.

The boy hesitantly got up and started looking again.

After several more hours, he got fed up.

"Grandfather," he said. "I'm sorry, but there is no

treasure here. All I found were these useless things."

The boy dumped a pile of things in front of his

grandfather. There were beautiful pastel colored

starfish of yellow, orange, purple and blue.

There were ivory-white sand dollars and shells

of many varieties. Big, small, spiraled, scallop,

periwinkle, mussel, and an empty crab shell. mussel?

"Like I told you," said the grandfather to the boy.

"You will find lots of treasure."