On a splendid sunny day, a girl named Lucy was exploring the beach near her home, skipping stones and gathering shiny seashells. As she wandered farther from the shore, she felt the sand shifting beneath her feet. Curious, she knelt down and started digging with her fingers. Before long, she uncovered something hard and wooden.
With a few more minutes of digging, Lucy found an ancient-looking treasure chest. It was locked, but the rust on the lock suggested it had been decades—or even centuries—since anyone had laid eyes on the treasures hidden inside. While Lucy contemplated what to do with this find, she was surprised to see a group of dolphins swimming in the water nearby. “Lucy! Lucy!” they seemed to call, their voices echoing in her mind. “Come play with us!”
Lucy pondered the dolphins’ invitation, but her heart was set on the treasure chest. “I’d rather keep all the hidden jewels to myself,” she replied, half-hoping they would give up and go away. When the dolphins just kept calling out her name, she cried, “I don’t have time to play!”
“How about you give us the treasure instead?” one dolphin suggested, lifting his head out of the water. “We promise you won’t regret it!”
Now Lucy was really interested. Would the dolphins help her break the lock? Eager to learn more, she replied, “Alright, and promise me you’ll share whatever is in the chest.”
They all swam together farther out to sea, looking for a place where the water was deep enough for the dolphins to completely raise themselves out of the water. Finally, they found the spot and put their tails together so that Lucy could step onto them to stand comfortably above the water’s surface.
“Now, please break the lock,” she said to the dolphins, trying to sound as polite as the situation demanded. Using their strong tails, the dolphins smashed the chest down to the ocean floor.
At that moment, Lucy woke from her daydreaming and looked once again at the old wooden treasure chest.
“Should I take it home and see what’s inside?” she wondered aloud. “Or should I get someone to open the chest right here?”
The sun was still high in the sky, but already, she pictured herself at home, sitting under the covers of a thick blanket, listening to her dad read an exciting story about pirates and treasure maps. Wouldn’t it be fun to be a pirate? All the sea animals around would be her friends, just like the dolphins in her dream—and they’d probably help her chase after tall ships filled with gold doubloons!
Lucy dug her fingers in the sand, pretending they were a pirate’s hook, carefully examining the lock on the chest. Suddenly, she noticed a curious shell that looked like a key. It was so polished and bright that she wouldn’t be surprised if someone had dropped it on purpose. She held it up to the light, turned it over in her palm, and then put it in the lock. But the shell key didn’t fit!
Looking more closely, Lucy could see that the lock had several big holes in it. “Hmm,” she thought, “if the lock won’t open the simple way, I’ll have to persuade it!” She rattled the chest with both hands. To her utter astonishment, the lid sprang open, spilling golden trinkets, sparkling diamonds, and colorful pearls all over the sand.
Lucy quickly shook off her surprise and stuffed her pockets full of brightly colored gems. “Wow, what fortune!” she exclaimed. “No one will think twice about me wearing this jewelry that came from a pirate’s hoard.”
Then she picked up two big pearls, one for her best friend and another for her cousin Jill who was always taking care of her and reading books to her. “I’ll give them something from the treasure too; that would be a nice thing to do,” she declared.
After a while, though, after taking her time looking for the prettiest pearls, she noticed her treasures were making her pockets heavier than usual. And the more she looked at the scene before her, the more she kept hearing the dolphins. “Lucy! Come play with us! Lucy, will you come?”
Thinking of her earlier dream, Lucy turned away and tried to block their calls, but in the end, the tide brought in voice after voice. “Shouldn’t I share something about my good luck? They did all ask me so nicely to join them and didn’t once get cross at me when I refused.”
With a big sigh, Lucy put the pearls back down on the sand and prepared to head home. “Well, farewell, pearls! They’ll just have to sit here until either the tide steals them away or someone comes along and picks them all up. It’s a shame though, as my pockets feel so much lighter now.”
The dolphins saw Lucy from a distance paddling on her surfboard, and breaking her thoughts of the treasure she had refused them. The moment Lucy was close enough, they started leaping into the air, dancing around her, splashing water over her legs.
“Thank you! Thank you!” the dolphins squeaked. “You quickly came to see us after throwing the pearls back on the beach!”
“I didn’t come to see you at all!” Lucy cried back. “Don’t you remember? I made it very plain that I didn’t care for you or any of your silly tricks when you were calling my name before!”
“Oh no, we forgot all that just like you forgot all your treasures only a few moments ago,” answered the dolphins with a giggle.
Then Lucy remembered what she had said and tilted her head to hide a smile. “Well, they’re just silly pearls in the end, anyway,” she replied calmly.
“And that’s exactly why we knew you would give them to us!”
“What do you mean?” Lucy exclaimed, mystified.
“We promise you will have wonderful stories and experience splendid adventures in return. But here is a dash of salt; hold it in your hands!”
One dolphin threw the salt high into the air, and another quickly splashed water over it. Soon little rainbows danced all around Lucy, and she seemed to hear someone singing all the stories she had read or heard before boiling up into musical notes.
When she had finished thanking the dolphins again for what she thought was a simple piece of salt, she dashed up onto the beach. Then she suddenly turned and looked back toward the dolphins as they started to swim away. “How is it you knew I don’t like pearls?”
“By giving up the pearls, you were proving there was magic in your heart,” they answered, swimming several circles in the water.
“And now,” Lucy said, dancing on top of Fred the Wave, the largest of the dolphins, “I think I’ll wait here for you to come back, because I really do like you very much!”
Just then, in the distance, her father was sitting on a rock and gazing into the horizon, beginning to grow anxious about his daughter’s long absence. Lucy, too far away for him to see, gave one last look to her dolphin friends waving their fins goodbye. And though she was disappointed to lose the treasures, she was glad she had been good and honest to the last.