Really, the room was more dainty and comfortable than one might
suppose possible in a palace far beneath the surface of the sea, and
Trot was greatly delighted with her new quarters. The mermaid
attendants assisted the child to dress herself in one of the
prettiest robes, which she found to be quite dry and fitted her
comfortably. Then the sea-maids brushed and dressed her hair, and
tied it with ribbons of cherry-red seaweed. Finally they placed
around her neck a string of pearls that would have been priceless
upon the earth, and now the little girl announced she was ready for
supper and had a good appetite.

Cap'n Bill had been given a similar room near Trot, but the old
sailor refused to change his clothes for any others offered him, for
which reason he was ready for supper long before his comrade. "What
bothers me, mate," he said to the little girl as the y swam toward
the great banquet hall where Queen Aquareine awaited them, "is why
ain't we crushed by the pressin' of the water agin us, bein' as
we're down here in the deep sea."

"How's that, Cap'n? Why should we be crushed?" she asked.

"Why, ev'r'body knows that the deeper you go in the sea, the more
the water presses agin you," he explained. "Even the divers in their
steel jackets can't stand it very deep down. An' here we be, miles
from the top o' the water, I s'pect, an' we don't feel crowded a
bit."

"I know why," answered the child wisely. "The water don't touch us,
you see. If it did, it might crush us, but it don't. It's always
held a little way off from our bodies by the magic of the fairy