Bimini islander Dennis would like to have "a boat and a grapple and a net and a bucket AND a fine big hat" so that he can "take good care of himself" like his conch fisherman father. If he found a wentletrap, jokes his father, he could buy all those things, and so, with a storm coming on and his mother worried about his father off at sea, Dennis sets out to do just that. What he traps under the empty box he calls a wentletrap is a succession of hermit crabs, who deposit their old borrowed shells and run off to the sea with new ones. The last shell to appear and disappear this way is the longed-for wentletrap--a disappointment--but by then his father is home and (brightening with alacrity) Dennis suggests that they take good care of themselves together. Who knows? This might be sufficient consolation for Dennis, but it's a weak sort of reward for readers who expect more than a quick hug and a peek at the hermit crab's housing habits.
