Coral by Frank R. Stockton

Coral had been used many hundreds of years before men found out what it was. The savages used to fashion it into ornaments for their knife and axe handles; and, when men were more civilized, and had learned to work in iron, and to make armor, they liked to adorn their shields and helmets with coral. Women made of this beautiful red substance, necklaces for the neck, bracelets for the arms, and ornaments for the hair. But it is not likely that any of these savages or partially civilized people made any attempt to find out what kind of substance this coral was. They gathered it near the surface of the sea, and never stopped to think how it got there.

But when men became still more highly civilized they thought more deeply about things, and began to ask each other what caused day, and night; and heat, and cold; why the Moon grew from a little bright streak into the brilliant full orb, and a multitude of other questions. There was no one to answer these questions, and so the wisest men set to work to study it all out. They found out a great deal, but, of course they made a great many mistakes that had to be set right afterwards by other learned men.