herrings best of all, and feed on them oftener than on any other kind of
fish.

There is just one fellow that I cannot endure. That is the flying-fish.
I fight, make war on him, and drive him away every time he comes around.
Oh, but he is the trying creature! Forever flying in your face, getting
in your way, prying into your affairs, a kind of gossip-fish, that I
despise. Why I feel so great a dislike for him I cannot say, it must be
there is something in my nature that sets me against him, but a
flying-fish and a Dolphin cannot live along the same wave.

There is another page in my history that must be mentioned.

Several hundred years ago our flesh used to be eaten, and what is more,
it was thought to be fine, so that only those who had a great deal of
money could afford to have it on their tables. But nowadays we are never
used for food, but are thought to be coarse, and not nearly as nice as
most other kinds of fish.

All right! We are very glad not to be in danger of being devoured. We go
sailing along under the bright surface of the sea, in groups of just
ourselves, and such leaps as we can take! By and by, you will hear of
leaps I have taken which have been the means of my learning a great
deal.

Away we scud, passing ships that think they are going pretty fast, but,
O Neptune! our fins and tails take us along at a spanking rate, which
makes the ships seem slow.

In one thing we are much like Folks. Don't laugh, please, but we are