Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 6, 2025
Gray had gone in pursuit; but law! my dear, he'll never catch 'em, and if he did, what could he do against three men? "He'd a ought to have taken the constable with him," said old Mrs. Fidgit, "then perhaps he'd have got him back. I guess the thieves won't keep the boy long though, he's too troublesome! His ma sent him over once on an errand, and I'd as lieve have a wild-cat in the house any day.
Once more the Doctor lowered his ear beneath the level of the water; and as he began to speak, I started to write. And this is the story that the fidgit told us. "I was born in the Pacific Ocean, close to the coast of Chile. I was one of a family of two-thousand five-hundred and ten. Soon after our mother and father left us, we youngsters got scattered.
The Fidgit: "Alas! no. I would willingly if I could; but he is hardly ever seen by ordinary fish. He lives at the bottom of the Deep Hole, and seldom comes out And into the Deep Hole, the lower waters of which are muddy, fishes such as we are afraid to go." The Doctor: "Dear me! That's a terrible disappointment. Are there many of this kind of snail in the sea?" The Fidgit: "Oh no.
The Doctor: "Is there any part of the sea deeper than that known as the Nero Deep I mean the one near the Island of Guam?" The Fidgit: "Why, certainly. There's one much deeper than that near the mouth of the Amazon River. But it's small and hard to find. We call it 'The Deep Hole. And there's another in the Antarctic Sea." The Doctor: "Can you talk any shellfish language yourself?"
Do you happen to know where it is?" The Fidgit: "Yes, I do. That too is in the Deep Hole. When the barrel sank the currents drifted it northwards down what we call the Orinoco Slope, till it finally disappeared into the Deep Hole. If it was any other part of the sea I'd try and get it for you; but not there." The Doctor: "Well, that is all, I think.
"That," whispered Polynesia, "is what sailors for hundreds of years have called the Sea-serpent. I've seen it myself more than once from the decks of ships, at long range, curving in and out of the water. But now that I see it close and still, I very strongly suspect that the Sea-serpent of history is no other than the Great Glass Sea-snail that the fidgit told us of.
The Doctor: "I cannot thank you enough for all the information you have given me. You have been very helpful and patient." The Fidgit: "Pray do not mention it. It has been a real pleasure to be of assistance to the great John Dolittle. You are, as of course you know, already quite famous among the better class of fishes. Goodbye! and good luck to you, to your ship and to all your plans!"
The Fidgit: "No, not a word. We regular fishes don't have anything to do with the shellfish. We consider them a low class." The Doctor: "But when you're near them, can you hear the sound they make talking I mean without necessarily understanding what they say?" The Fidgit: "Only with the very largest ones.
It isn't shellfish; but it's a big step towards it. Now, the next thing, I want you to take a pencil and a fresh notebook and write down everything I say. The fidgit has promised to tell me the story of his life. I will translate it into English and you put it down in the book. Are you ready?"
He is the only one in existence, since his second wife died long, long ago. He is the last of the Giant Shellfish. He belongs to past ages when the whales were land-animals and all that. They say he is over seventy thousand years old." The Doctor: "Good Gracious, what wonderful things he could tell me! I do wish I could meet him." The Fidgit: "Were there any more questions you wished to ask me?
Word Of The Day
Others Looking