Shells in Rock

I've been along the quarry road, And I have watched men digging wells, And everywhere it was the same-- The stones were full of little shells.

And they are packed away in rock; They're under sand and under clay; And some one said that they were left When the ocean went away.

I saw them in the stones that make A church, and in a bridge. They're hidden in the solid rock But they show along the edge.

You see them in foundation stones; They show in creeks and waterfalls; And once I saw them on the jail-- More little shells in walls.

We walk on them when we walk on roads; And they're packed under all the hills. Suppose the sea should come back here And gather up its shells.