Should she have a freshwater aquarium or a sea water one? Cheyenne has already made up her mind. When she gets home from her holidays, she will ask Karl to help her build a lovely freshwater aquarium, and already, in her imagination, she can see lots of colorful, little, tropical fish swimming about in it.

Cheyenne knows that for a first attempt a freshwater aquarium will be easier, although she prefers fish. “Grandpa, “she says, “I would really like to have pearl oysters like they do in Japan!”

But her grandfather laughs and says: “No! They can only be grown in special underwater farms, where they are kept healthy and clean until it is time for their operation.”

“What operation?” asks Cheyenne.

“The surgical operation which starts the oyster making a pearl! It is done by introducing a fragment of mother-of-pearl between the cloak and the shell of the oyster and then the mollusk slowly covers it up. It takes seven years to grow a cultivated pearl, which will come out perfectly shiny…”

“What a shame!” she says. “In seven years from now I could have given mom a precious pearl necklace!”