Page 84 - Stories for Thinking Children 2

tem that Allah has given us fish,"
replied his friend. "A fish has air
sacs in its body. By filling these

sacs with air we can go down to
the depths, or head straight for
the surface by emptying them. Of
course we would never have had
the power to develop these charac-
teristics by ourselves unless Allah had
willed that it should be so."

While his father got on with jobs at the stern of the boat, Omar
continued his conversation with the fish:

"I'm thinking about very crowded places. Everybody has to
move left or right at the same time, and if it's dark it's impossible
for anybody to move without bumping into other people. How do

you fish manage to get over that problem?"
The little fish set about explaining: "To avoid bumping into oth-
ers around you, you have to see what's there, whereas we fish

have no need of such a visual system. We have a perfect sense
organ called the "lateral line." We can feel the slightest change in

82