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"Yes, it is very foolish and very sad," answered Merla. "But if the fish were wise, men could not catch them for food, and many poor people on your earth make their living by fishing." "It seems wicked to catch such pretty things," said the child. "I do not think so," Merla replied laughingly, "for they were born to become food for someone, and men are not the only ones that eat fishes.
"I'm sorry, for he was the prettiest and nicest mackerel in your whole flock." "What does it mean?" asked Trot. "How did Flippity go to glory?" "Why, he was caught by a hook and pulled out of the water into some boat," Merla explained.
"Here live the fiddler crabs," said Merla, "but we must have taken them by surprise, it is so quiet." Even as she spoke, there was a stirring and scrambling among the rocks, and soon scores of light-green crabs were gathered before the visitors. The crabs bore fiddles of all sorts and shapes in their claws, and one big fellow carried a leader's baton.
"It is against our customs," Merla answered, her hands closing hard on the tripod beside her. What terror it would mean for her to stand before that great black box, and have that evil black eye glare upon her for long seconds! She had seen her countrywomen flee shrieking to their huts, when the Englishmen approached with their black boxes.
"Thank you," said Trot, and Merla added, "I'll take you over to his majesty's palace when we go out and let you see how he lives." "Yes, do," said Anko. And then he slowly slid out of the hole, which immediately closed behind him, leaving the coral wall as solid as before. "Oh!" exclaimed Trot. "King Anko forgot to tell us what his third pain was about." "So he did," said Cap'n Bill.
At first the sailor was tempted to put out a hand and push the creature away, but remembering that his fingers would thus be exposed, he remained quiet, and the eel snapped harmlessly just before his face and then darted away. "Stop it!" said Merla. "Stop it this minute, or I'll report your impudence to Aquareine." "Oh, who cares?" shouted the Eels. "We're not afraid of the mermaids."
"Finally," continued Anko, "I sent to inquire as to what had become of you, and Merla said you had been gone from the palace a long time and she was getting anxious about you. Then I made inquiries. Everyone in the sea loves to serve me except those sea devils and their cousins, the octopi and it wasn't long before I heard you had been captured by Zog."
Krino, blinded, maddened by passion, glanced at the wall whence came the scraping sound, and then, catching sight of a flying form in English dress, plunged with a cry of triumph after it. Merla fled like the wind along in the shadow of the wall, keeping in the darkness, with her head down, fearing lest her bare head or bare feet might betray her.
Many other curious sights they saw in the ocean that afternoon, and both Cap'n Bill and Trot thoroughly enjoyed their glimpse of sea life. At last Merla said it was time to return to the palace, from which she claimed they had not at any time been very far distant. "We must prepare for dinner, as it will soon begin to grow dark in the water," continued their conductor.
"Of course, it would make one very careful what one said before them or above them rather," Merla rattled on, and then, to Francesca's infinite relief, she espied another acquaintance sitting in unprotected solitude, who promised to supply a more durable audience than her present rapidly moving companion.
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