the many objects covering the sea-floor.

Do you suppose it is an easy matter to find a fish that has got lost? I
caught the flying-fish because he never got far away from me. But here
was a young rascal that had gone off roaming, almost before he knew how
to feed himself, and search as she might, nowhere could his mother find
the rogue of a runaway.

If you will believe it, he was gone a week, then back he came, his eyes
as big as saucers. You see, I know how to say some things that Folks do;
by and by you will find out how I learned them.

Master Dolphy had a story to tell. He made us understand in
fish-language that he had found a wonderful, wonderful cave, where a
party of mermaids had collected a lot of shells, oh, enough to fill a
great house!

Now, I can't tell a thing as to the truth about mermaids. But "they
say," that is, Folks and fishes say, that they are strange, fascinating
creatures, with the head, shoulders, arms, and breast of a beautiful
woman, and part of the body and the tail of a fish. Sometimes they are
called sea-nymphs; others call them sirens.

Have you ever lived by the sea? And on stormy evenings, when rain was
rattling on the window-pane, and the wind went screaming around the
house, have you ever imagined there were queer calls, and have you seen
strange shapes thrown up by the waves?

Or have you ever heard an old sailor or an old fisherman tell stories of
the deep? If not, you cannot take in the kind of spell or enchantment