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Captain Coral was the fearless, though slightly forgetful, leader of the most daring crew of land-crabs on the coast. She wore a dashing seaweed patch over one eye (for style, not necessity) and carried a magnificent compass. This wasn't just any compass; it was inside a large, temperamental clam shell, and it only pointed to the nearest, most delicious seaweed salad.

One morning, the crew—which included a nervous hermit crab named Sheldon and a very dramatic fiddler crab named Rex—was ready for adventure. "Full speed ahead to the Isle of Sandy Surprises!" Captain Coral bellowed. She lifted the clam-compass, expecting the needle to point east.

Instead, the compass's clam shell snapped open and closed with a loud CLACK! and the needle spun wildly, finally settling to point directly at Sheldon, the nervous hermit crab. Sheldon shrank inside his borrowed whelk shell.

"Sheldon, you scallywag!" cried Rex. "Have you hidden the seaweed salad?"

Sheldon poked an eyestalk out. "No, Captain! But I did have a small, rather tasty piece of green algae stuck to my antenna from breakfast."

Captain Coral adjusted her seaweed patch. "The compass never lies! Sheldon, you are now our temporary North Pole." For the rest of the morning, any time the Captain needed to know the true direction of, say, a tidal pool, she simply pointed at Sheldon. Sheldon tried to look important, puffing out his chest, but mostly he just looked terrified that he might be mistaken for lunch.

At high noon, the clam compass gave another mighty CLACK! and this time pointed not at Sheldon, but at a soggy, forgotten lettuce leaf floating near the pier. "Ah!" cried Captain Coral. "The true salad!" She saluted the leaf and declared the day's adventure a success. Sheldon let out a tiny, relieved sigh and promised himself he would eat every last bit of algae off his antenna next time.