"Oh no," said the mermaid. "We would make you both like one of
ourselves, and then you could live within the water as easily as we
do."

"I don't know as I'd like that," said the child, "at least for
always."

"You need not stay with us a moment longer than you please,"
returned the mermaid, smiling as if amused at the remark. "Whenever
you are ready to return home, we promise to bring you to this place
again and restore to you the same forms you are now wearing."

"Would I have a fish's tail?" asked Trot earnestly.

"You would have a mermaid's tail," was the reply.

"What color would my scales be--pink, or purple?"

"You may choose the color yourself."

"Look ahere, Trot!" said Cap'n Bill in excitement. "You ain't
thinkin' o' doin' such a fool thing, are you?"

"'Course I am," declared the little girl. "We don't get such
inv'tations every day, Cap'n, and if I don't go now I may never find
out how the mermaids live."

"I don't care how they live, myself," said Cap'n Bill. "I jes' want
'em to let ME live."