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Updated: May 31, 2025
"She'll stiffen you up again, as she did once before," said Merla, "if you try to hurt the earth people." "Are these earth people?" asked one. And then they all stopped their play and regarded Trot and Cap'n Bill with their little black eyes. "The old polliwog looks something like King Anko," said one of them. "I'm not a polliwog!" answered Cap'n Bill angrily.
It was unlawful! We rallied round the flag in sev'ral millions; They couldn't shake us; They had to take us; So the halibut and cod they danced cotillions." "What does it all mean?" asked Trot. "I suppose they refer to the way barnacles have of clinging to ships," replied Merla, "but usually the songs mean nothing at all.
Trot was greatly relieved. "I don't like eels," she said. "They are more mischievous than harmful," replied Merla, "but I do not care much for them myself." "No," added Cap'n Bill, "they ain't respec'ful." The three swam slowly along, quite enjoying the cool depths of the water.
"And now," said Aquareine, "I will send you out for a swim with Merla, who will show you some of the curious sights of our sea. You need not go far this afternoon, and when you return, we will have another interesting talk together." So the blonde mermaid led Trot and Cap'n Bill outside the palace walls, where they found themselves in the pretty flower gardens.
We often lose track of the centuries down here in the sea." "That's pretty old, isn't it?" said Trot. "Older than Cap'n Bill, I guess." "Summat," chuckled the sailor man, "summat older, mate, but not much. P'raps the sea serpent ain't got gray whiskers." "Oh yes he has," responded Merla with a laugh. "And so have his two brothers, Unko and Inko.
"I know where you're going," said Merla, with the resentful buzz of a bluebottle that finds itself thwarted by the cold unreasoning resistance of a windowpane. "You're going to play bridge at Serena Golackly's. She never asks me to her bridge parties."
"They are not lamps, my dear," replied Merla, much amused at this suggestion. "We use electric lights in our palaces and have done so for thousands of years long before the earth people knew of electric lights." "But where do you get 'em?" inquired Cap'n Bill, who was as much astonished as the girl.
"Oh, they do," replied Merla. "I've seen fishes gather around a hook and look at it carefully for a long time. They all know it is a hook and that if they bite the bait upon it they will be pulled out of the water. But they are curious to know what will happen to them afterward, and think it means happiness instead of death.
Presently a big rock rose suddenly before them from the bottom of the sea, rearing its steep side far up into the water overhead, and this rock was thickly covered with tiny shells that clung fast to its surface. The chorus they heard appeared to come from these shells, and Merla said to her companions, "These are the singing barnacles.
There were few people stirring; the men had already started to their work in the fields by the Nile, or on the river itself, and the women kept within the close darkness of the huts mixing and baking meal for the evening's food. Merla walked on swiftly and silently like a shadow at Stanhope's side through the mud village, and then on into the silent heat of the desert beyond.
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