



Produced by Internet Archive, University of Florida, and Garrett Alley
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team





LORD DOLPHIN

[Illustration: "A GREAT VESSEL WAS STRAINING AND TUGGING. AND I COULD
SEE LIGHTS"]




LORD DOLPHIN

BY

HARRIET A. CHEEVER



AUTHOR OF "THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF BILLY TRILL," "MADAME ANGORA,"
"MOTHER BUNNY," ETC.

Illustrated by

DIANTHA W. HORNE




LORD DOLPHIN



1903



CONTENTS


CHAPTER I. LORD DOLPHIN INTRODUCES HIMSELF

II. UNDER THE WAVES

III. A CORAL GROVE

IV. THE MERMAID'S CAVE

V. MY GARDENS

VI. MY TREASURE GROUNDS

VII. WHAT I SAW ONE DAY

VIII. MY STRANGE ADVENTURE

IX. LORD DOLPHIN ON LAND

X. HURRAH!




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


"A GREAT VESSEL WAS STRAINING AND TUGGING, AND I COULD SEE LIGHTS"

"MY TURN TO SHOW A WIDE MOUTH NOW"

"WHITE FACES SEEMED TO RISE AND RIDE ATOP OF THE FOAMING BILLOWS"

"OFF TORE THE FISHES, MAD WITH TERROR"

"ONE CUTE LITTLE NYMPH OF A GIRL WAS CRAZY TO GET NEAR ME"

"I WAS GIVEN MY FIRST RIDE ON LAND"




LORD DOLPHIN: HIS STORY

       *       *       *       *       *




CHAPTER I.


LORD DOLPHIN INTRODUCES HIMSELF

Now who ever heard of a fish's sitting up and telling his own story!

Oh, you needn't laugh, you young Folks, perhaps you will find that I can
make out very well, considering.

Of course I have been among "Folks," else I could never use your
language or know anything about you and your ways.

A message is not received direct from the depths of the sea very often,
and especially from one of the natural natives. And then, there are very
few fishes that ever have an experience like mine, and travel from one
continent to another, going both by sea and by land.

You surely will open your eyes pretty widely at that, and wonder how a
fish could go anywhere by land. Have patience and you shall hear all
about it by and by.

I was born deep down in the Mediterranean Sea. That long name is no
stranger. You have seen it many a time in your geographies. But could
you tell the meaning of it, I wonder? _I_ can! It means "Midland Sea,"
and is so named from being so near the middle of the earth.

If the Mediterranean Sea should be pulled up and away, together with the
space it occupies, my! what a hole there would be in the big round
earth!

Nowadays, even the little Folks hear a great deal about Europe. Some of
the family have very likely been there. Perhaps even small John or
Elizabeth have themselves crossed the great ocean, sailing on a fine
steamer to the coast of England or Ireland.

Oho! if you had fins and could spread them like sails, and cut through
the water like a flash, you would have a very different idea of the word
"distance" from what you have now.

I know "Folks" do not think it very nice to talk much about one's self,
but if there is no one else to introduce you, and it is necessary that
those with whom you are talking should know the truth about you, it can
be plainly seen that the only thing to do is to tell the personal story
as modestly and as truthfully as possible.

When first I saw the light, deep down in the sea, I was quite a little
fellow, and had a mother that took splendid care of me. She never had
but one child at a time, and that one she watched over and tended with
much affection until it was fully able to take care of itself.

My name is Dolphin, and the Dolphin family is a large one. One branch is
of a very peculiar shape, and has a long and pointed nose or beak from
which it is called the "Sea Goose," or the "Goose of the Sea." I belong
to that branch, but as to being a goose, allow me to say I never was one
and never shall be, not really and truly.

My head is round, and so large that it forms almost a third of my whole
body. Many Folks travelling by water have seen Dolphins, as once in
awhile we are obliged to toss our heads up out of the water in order to
breathe, as we have lungs. Yet it is not necessary for us to breathe as
Folks do, and we can blow out water in an upward stream from little
holes that are over our eyes.

My colors are fine, dark, almost black on my back, gray at the sides,
white and shiny as satin underneath.

There are strange things about a Dolphin. One is that when one is about
to die, the colors are very beautiful. In growing faint-tinted where
once dark, new and brilliant shades flash forth that change and glow in
showy tints. In our beak are thirty or forty sharp teeth on each side of
the jaw. Our voices are peculiar. We are said to make a kind of moan,
which you know is not a very cheerful sound. This is strange, as we are
really very lively creatures, and bright and happy in disposition, not
at all moany or sad.

Then we have a kind of small tank or reservoir inside the chest and near
the spine which is filled with pure blood. This, you must know, is
separate from the veins, and if we stay very long under water we can
draw from this reserve supply, causing it to circulate through the body.

There is a great deal of wisdom in all this that a poor fish cannot
understand, but Folks must know how these strange things come about, and
who makes and guides all creatures everywhere. But a Dolphin cannot take
it in at all.

We are a merry, friendly tribe. There probably are no fish that swim the
sea that are fonder of Folks than we Dolphins. And we cannot help
feeling quite proud because of what Folks have appeared to think of us.
And I must explain why I do so grand a thing as to call myself "Lord
Dolphin."

To begin with: In long years past, in "ancient times," as they are
called, Folks had an idea that we were able to do them good in some
ways, and so were of special value to them. And certain old coins or
pieces of money had the figure of a Dolphin stamped on them. It also was
on medals, which, you know, are of gold, silver, and copper, and are
given to Folks as a reward for having done a good or a brave deed.

The figure of a Dolphin was also sometimes embroidered on ribbon to be
used as a badge, showing that the wearer belonged to a particular
society or order using the Dolphin as an emblem. Or it might be, again,
that the figure showed one to be a member of an ancient or noble family.

Then there are strange and attractive stories of "myths," imaginary
forms or persons, like fairies, gods, and goddesses. When you are older
you will study about these ancient, make-believe beings, and the study
will be called myth-ology, telling curious, interesting stories about
the myths.

Apollo, one of the so-called deities, was a myth, and said to be the god
of music, medicine, and the fine arts, a great friend of mankind; and a
great favorite I was said to be of Apollo's.

Orion, another myth, and a most exquisite player of the lute, so
charmed the Dolphins with his playing, that once being in great trouble
and throwing himself into the sea, a Dolphin bore him on his back to the
shore.

Some Folks have called us whales. But we are not whales at all, and are
of an entirely different family. Yet I am a big fellow all of eight feet
long, while some of us are still much longer than that.

But the chief cause of pride with the Dolphins is the notice that has
been taken of us, and the honor shown us by the royal family of France.
Why, we formed at one time the chief figure on the coat of arms of the
princes of France.

A coat of arms, perhaps you know, is a family crest or medal, having on
it a figure or device which a high-born family adopts as its particular
sign or emblem of nobility.

Then the French people once named a province of France for us, calling
it Dauphene, and pronounced Dor-fa-na.

But greatest of all the honors shown us, is the fact that the little
men-babies born of the French kings, and heirs to the throne of France,
were called "the Dauphin," taken from our name.

Are we not distinguished? And do you wonder that we have a somewhat
exalted idea of ourselves after such honors as these have been heaped
upon us? And do you think, in view of these facts, that I am taking on
too grand a title in announcing myself as "Lord Dolphin"?

Dear me, I do hope not! It would be such a pity to make a mistake right
at the outset in telling a story. For truth to tell, I am not a bit
proud, but just a good-natured chap that has decided to spin a sea-yarn
for the amusement, and I hope the instruction, it may be, of young
Folks, being perfectly willing the older Folks should hear it, too, if
they like. And I don't believe the smaller Folks will object to the
title, even if they don't have "lords" in this country. It must be they
are all lords here, all the nice men-Folks.

Do you wonder what I live on? Fishes, of course, for we do not have a
very great chance at getting other kinds of food under water. I like
herrings best of all, and feed on them oftener than on any other kind of
fish.

There is just one fellow that I cannot endure. That is the flying-fish.
I fight, make war on him, and drive him away every time he comes around.
Oh, but he is the trying creature! Forever flying in your face, getting
in your way, prying into your affairs, a kind of gossip-fish, that I
despise. Why I feel so great a dislike for him I cannot say, it must be
there is something in my nature that sets me against him, but a
flying-fish and a Dolphin cannot live along the same wave.

There is another page in my history that must be mentioned.

Several hundred years ago our flesh used to be eaten, and what is more,
it was thought to be fine, so that only those who had a great deal of
money could afford to have it on their tables. But nowadays we are never
used for food, but are thought to be coarse, and not nearly as nice as
most other kinds of fish.

All right! We are very glad not to be in danger of being devoured. We go
sailing along under the bright surface of the sea, in groups of just
ourselves, and such leaps as we can take! By and by, you will hear of
leaps I have taken which have been the means of my learning a great
deal.

Away we scud, passing ships that think they are going pretty fast, but,
O Neptune! our fins and tails take us along at a spanking rate, which
makes the ships seem slow.

In one thing we are much like Folks. Don't laugh, please, but we are
very, very fond of music. Sometimes we catch the sound of voices singing
on a vessel, and up we go, leaping fairly into the air to get as near
the sound as possible.

And should there be a violin, a guitar, flute, or a cornet--oh, yes, I
know them all!--on a passing vessel, we float alongside just far enough
under water to keep our bodies out of sight, while we take in the
strains in our own peculiar way. For although our ears might be hard to
find, we yet absorb or draw in sound very readily.

And now that you know quite a little about the Dolphin family, I will
tell you some things that may interest you about my watery home. For
home, you know, is wherever one lives, whether it be in the air, on the
earth, in the earth, or in the waters under the earth.




CHAPTER II.


UNDER THE WAVES

Pretty soon I must describe my playground, but first you must learn a
few simple things about the place I love best of all places in the
world, my home in the deep, deep sea.

Do you suppose that when the sky is dark and threatening up where you
live, and when the wind is blowing like a hurricane, and the great waves
lash about, acting as if mad, that there is great disturbance far below?

Do you suppose that when shipmasters are shouting out orders to the
crew, and trying to keep their vessels from turning topsy-turvy or going
down out of sight, that the fishes are scampering about wild, driven
here and there by the fierce winds, and scared half to death by the fury
of the storm?

Do you suppose there is a terrible roar of wind and wave that bangs us
against each other at such times, and makes of the under-sea a raging
bedlam?

Oh, by no means! There is nothing of the kind down in what Folks call
"the lower ocean." It is calm and quiet as the surface of a pond on a
pleasant summer day.

And yet, if you wonder how I first learned about the lashing and the
thrashing of the waves above our heads when there is a storm, let me
tell about the time when I was a naughty, wilful fish, bound to have my
own way and do just as I pleased. It was when I was quite young, yet
pretty well grown. And this makes me wonder if growing little men-Folks
and women-Folks ever are determined to have their own way, no matter
what the mother may say.

I have an idea it is what is called the "smart age," when the young,
whether fish, flesh, or fowl, start up all at once, and think they know
more than--"than all the ancients." I heard that expression used once,
and it seemed somehow to fit in here.

Well, I was a young, big fellow, when one day I felt the will strong
within me to take leaps toward the upper sea. Now, I have already said
that my mother took the best and most watchful care of me when I was a
chicken-fish. So when she saw how restless and venturesome I appeared
that day, she tried her best, poor dear, to turn me from my purpose.

For she was older and wise, and could tell by certain signs when the
upper currents were seething and boiling. So when I darted upwards with
a strong swirl that cut the waters apart for my passage, she thrust
herself farther ahead, trying to drive me back, and said plainly by her
actions:

"Don't go aloft, my son, you will rush into danger; heed the warnings of
your mother and stay where the waters are untroubled and safe."

No, I was getting to be a smart man-fish, and must be allowed to go
where I would.

Very well, I went. Upward and upward I dove, until, oh, distress! I was
caught by the turmoil and confusion of a great storm. I had gone too far
because of knowing far less than I thought I did.

Do you ask why I did not immediately dive downwards again? Alas, I
couldn't! I had raised myself into the storm circle, and big creature
that I was, I had need to learn that there were mighty forces of the sea
that made all my strength as a mere wisp of straw when placed against
them.

Do not Folks, I wonder, sometimes find it much easier to get into a hard
place than to get out of it? That was what I found then, being driven
about first this way, then that. I was slammed against a great, roaring
billow that sent me off presently in another direction, merely to be met
by another wave that dashed me against a third one.

My instincts, that serve me for mind and brains, taught me that if I
wanted to get down to quiet, restful depths, I must dive head foremost
directly toward the bottom of the sea.

Oh, what folly to try! No sooner would I get my great head and long nose
pointed for a swift downward plunge, than a thundering billow would
actually toss me into the air, just as I have seen a spurt of spray toss
a cockle-shell.

Oh, but I saw strange sights and heard strange sounds that night! Once
when two waves came together I was not only tossed high in air, but for
several moments I actually rode atop of the rolling foam.

It was then that I had my first view of "Folks." What wonderful beings!
My first thought was, could it be some new, amazing kind of fish that
could stand upright? You see, I had up to that time only known creatures
that lay flat, that flapped fins in order to get along, or in order to
try what is called by the long word, lo-co-mo-tion.

But here were fine, tall objects that were in every way so different! I
indeed knew at once that they were far above and superior to the little
creatures that flew, to anything that crawled, and to any kind of fish
that swam the seas.

A great vessel was straining and tugging, and I could see lights here
and there that showed the water black as night. Sailors' voices rose
high above the surging of water and the tempest's loud cry. There were
queer little holes in the sides of the vessel that I know now are called
"port-holes," and big guns were pointed out through them.

A sailor with a rope about his waist tried to walk across the deck, but
was thrown along the wet and slippery boards like a ball tossed from the
hands of a child. In a queer set of outside garments that I have learned
are called "oil-skins," the crew, officers, and captain went to and fro,
trying their best to keep things straight.

In some way I knew that the brave captain was not afraid. A little pale
he was, surely, but his voice was firm as he called through a strange
fixture called the ship's trumpet. And his hands did not shake as he
tried to peer through a great glass across the rolling sea.

The sailor with the rope about him was again and again tossed and
tumbled about as he tried to make the passage across the deck, but as
often as he tried his mates would have to pull on the rope and right
him. And I still think, as I did that night, that a ship's crew,
sailors, officers, and captain, are brave, brave folk,--the bravest
Folks I know.

As the storm went crashing on, I kept thrusting myself downward, in
hopes to plunge lower than the storm circle. No use. I was upborne every
time, and after many attempts knew it would be best to simply float as I
must.

I had drifted far from the sailing-vessel, when, as I floated high on
the crest of a wave, I looked upon a pleasure-craft of some kind, riding
high upon the breakers. Men who were not regular sailors looked with
startled eyes on the terrible sea. They were calm and quiet, but from
the way they questioned the staunch skipper, and watched the men forming
the crew, I knew they carried anxious hearts, and longed to see the
waters grow calmer.

A hard fling sent me afloat again, and I had a peep inside the cabin,
where ladies with white faces and clasped hands were whispering of the
storm, and listening with fear in their eyes to the wild clamor of the
winds.

Then there was a peep beyond that showed me something that to this day
I cannot understand, but I tell it because my instincts assure me that
boy-Folks and girl-Folks in good homes with good parents will know just
what it meant. And although I am only Lord Dolphin, a great fish of the
sea, there was something about it that has comforted me, and I think
always will comfort me as long as I live.

I saw a little girl, oh, a fair little creature, with fluffy, golden
hair shading her babyish face, who was on her knees beside a white and
gilded berth.

A berth, you know, is a small bed built right against the wall in any
kind of a vessel, be it sailer, steamship, or yacht. I think this was
some rich man's yacht.

The fair little lady, then, was on her knees beside her gilded berth,
her elbows resting on the pretty white bed, eyes closed, tiny white
hands clasped, and lips moving. She surely was talking to some One, but
Who I cannot even guess.

But this much was certain: that child was not afraid. Not in the least!
She must have wakened from sleep, else she would not have been alone.
And hearing the wild storm, she had slipped from her little bed, put
herself on her knees, and raised her dear, fearless little hands and
heart--where?

Oh, surely that child had a Friend somewhere whom she trusted. How
beautiful!

They say that fishes and some other creatures are cold of blood and have
but little feeling. But I have gone far enough to think out one thing,
and it all comes of that child on her knees: if a dear mite of a woman
like that had a great, powerful Friend she could talk to in the dark,
and feel safe with in such a tempest, just as true as I am a living
Dolphin, I believe it must be some One strong enough and good enough to
care for all kinds of creatures. I do, indeed! Do you wonder it comforts
me?

It was strange that after awhile the moon came struggling through the
black and angry sky. She rode high, did Luna,--that is the moon's
name,--and was at the full, and wherever the clouds parted for a moment,
a broad streak of luminous light shone down on great mountains of water,
leaping up and up, as if eager to crush everything before them.

The wind did not soon go down, it could not; neither could I with my
utmost strength dive downwards through the piled-up, violent waves that
still rushed and roared, bounded and snapped with wild force.

Luna had sailed toward the west, and a gleam of daylight was streaking
the sky at the east, before the churning, choppy waters began leaping
less high, and once again I was tossed crest-high, where I was glad to
catch sight of a sailing-vessel that was steadying herself in the
distance, and a white yacht was skipping like a frightened but rescued
bird afar off.

I do not know whether I had been terribly afraid or not. I was not
afraid of the sea itself, it was what Folks call my "native element,"
the place in which I was born, was natural to me, and I was native to
it.

But yes, I think I was afraid that the coming together of those fierce
waves might crush me as they met in their terrible strength. The noise
of such a meeting could be heard miles away. Ships have been in great
peril from them, and fish have often had the life beaten out of them in
such a sea.

Yet, naughty fellow that I was, no great harm came to me. As soon as I
saw my chance, head down I plunged, out of the harsh circle of the
storm.

Oh, the peacefulness and the restfulness of those quiet lower regions!
For far below, all strife of angry billow and raging storm was unknown,
and glad enough was I to reach my mother's side.

It may have been that my own plump sides were puffed out with the effort
I had made, and the storm's rough tossing, and my absence and the
direction I had taken all told my mother that something had gone hard
with me, and that I was glad to again be near her in the silent depths
of home. She floated with me close alongside, guided me to a restful
grove midst shimmering weeds that made a soft and silken couch, where in
the sweet stillness, lulled by the lap of gentle ripples against weed,
or shell, or bending sea-flowers, I glided off to dreamless slumber.

And the last thing I saw before slipping off to quiet sleep was a little
bright-haired child on her knees, eyes closed, hands upraised and
folded: a child that was not afraid.




CHAPTER III.


A CORAL GROVE

Perhaps you did not know that the fishes in the sea, both large and
small, were playful creatures. Well, they are. They can frisk, frolic,
play "hide-and-seek", "catch", and race and romp at a great rate.

Now I want to tell something of our playground, and if you are surprised
at the beauty with which we are surrounded, why should you be? There
surely are lovely things on the earth for all kinds of upper-air
creatures, such as Folks, animals, birds, and insects, to enjoy.

Listen, then, while I tell about the "caverns of ocean". A cavern, you
know, is a hollow or den, and old ocean holds many a cavern or den full
of interest and beauty. But I will take you first to a kind of grove.

My home, where I spend most of my time, is in deep water. But not in the
deepest, oh, no! That is said to be two thousand fathoms down. Think of
it! More than two miles below the surface. There probably is but very
little life at that depth. But when I visit some groves, or the region
of a reef, I must first sail and sail until I reach water that is not
deep at all.

Do you think you have ever seen coral, real coral? Yes, doubtless you
have, and you may have seen it in various forms. But I feel sure you
have never seen coral to know very much about it, as you have never been
to the bottom of the sea.

Ah, here are all kinds of graceful shapes shooting up from the depths,
so singular and varied in form, that one would wonder what they are
meant to stand for. Look at these trees, perfect little trees in coral,
eight or ten feet high, with branches spreading out from the trunk. On
the branches are delicate sprays of fairylike net or lace-work, all in
white, but of various patterns. Should you get near enough, you would
see that these branches, some of which seem to bear flowers in shapes
like pinks or lilies, are dented or pitted as if tiny teeth had eaten
into them. This may be partly the work of worms.

Now, this is simply a large piece of white coral, but all around and
about are fanciful shapes, nearly as large as the one described. Here,
too, are what might be taken for thick bushes or shrubs, branching out
with sprays of fretwork, white and spotless. Then there are smaller
growths like low plants, and curiously , some pink, some red,
others a yellowish white. These, too, appear to bear flowers, asters,
carnations, or roses.

And for miles at a time we can rove and sport in a beautiful coral
grove.

Think of a little house, if you can, made entirely of ivory, with here
and there bright tints mingling with the white. For coral looks like
ivory when its natural roughness is smoothed and polished. Think of
swimming through little rooms, under arches, over lovely walks, through
make-believe doors, slipping past upright altars of red and white coral,
resting on spreading seats, or under outreaching canopies, or stopping
to look at another outreaching shape like the arms of candelabra or
candlestick holders. Sliding over footstools, and under culverts, all
soft and gleaming in color. Then again there are curves and passages in
which we can hide and stay hidden as long as we please. Is it not
beautiful? And all so clean and clear!

Yet there is need to take heed and be careful. These stretching shapes
and branches, these candle-holders and bushy twigs have sharp, hard
points, and bouncing against them too suddenly might severely wound a
fish, or it might slip into a crevice where it would be pricking work to
get out.

Now, what is coral. Is it alive? Does it live and breathe? It is one of
the curious, mysterious things of the ocean about which Folks have
written and studied, and the wise ones say that coral is neither insect
nor fish, but a kind of sea-animal, that lives in both deep and shallow
waters. In the beginning it appears to be a tiny sea-creature, like a
small, fleshy bag, with a mouth at one end, while with the other it
clings to some object, almost always a rock.

These little creatures are said to have the power to sting if they are
provoked. From these tiny frames there comes a hard, stony substance
that spreads and spreads as we have seen, while the part that was alive
becomes a mere dead shell.

This is the best explanation I can give about coral and the tiny
creatures from which it takes its start, and that seem so exceedingly
small to me to be called "sea-animals." But think of the wonderful
formations that grow from the bodies of these mites of creatures! Why,
there are whole reefs or chains of rocky borders along some coasts made
entirely of coral. Some of them are known as barrier reefs.

Bless you! it may be hard to believe, but a barrier reef twelve hundred
miles long runs along the coast of Australia between the Pacific and
Indian Oceans! Then there are coral islands in the Pacific Ocean, whole
platforms of solid coral which shut in portions of quiet water in some
places.

The little corals themselves do not work in deep water, nor above the
surface of the sea. But the bony substance spreads and spreads, up,
down, and across the sea. And as many shell-fish eat into coral, great
quantities of fine coral-sand sink to the bottom, making a nice white
carpet for the fishes to glide over. Folks do not take coral from the
sea at any time but during the months you call April, May, and June.

Now remember these things when you go into houses and see fine large
pieces of coral on the mantel, or it may be standing against the wall.

Perhaps you have a coral necklace of little, uneven, red, stick-like
beads. The jeweller-man can tell you how very hard it is to drill the
holes in these beads; it is like drilling through hard rock. But if you
happen to have a necklace, brooch, or bracelet of pink coral, my! you
had better take good care of it, for it must have cost a little bag of
gold. Pink coral is rare, beautiful, and very expensive. The genuine
pink-tinted is said to have sold for so great a price as five hundred
dollars for a single ounce.

Heigho! I want neither necklace, brooch, nor bracelet. For where, pray,
would Lord Dolphin wear a breastpin, or how would he look with a string
of coral beads about his neck, or a bracelet pinched about his tail?

You needn't laugh so hard. I have seen Folks who hung too much jewelry
about themselves and seemed to think it becoming. A few pieces of nice
jewelry may be tasteful and ornamental, but when too much is worn, I
have a fancy that it might make a coral mite or an oyster want to laugh.

Pretty soon I must explain why an oyster might have a right to be amused
at seeing too many gems crowded on at once. But first you must hear
something funny about coral, something so silly, too, that even a fish
is almost ashamed to tell of it; but this was true long in the past,
Folks are much wiser now.

Long years ago there were Folks who believed that wearing a "charm,"
which often was a little piece of coral, perhaps made into an ornament,
would charm away harm or danger, and keep them safe from "the evil eye."

"Dear sakes!" you cry, "what was 'the evil eye'?"

Well, it is almost sad to think that any one could be so foolish, yet
when Folks know but little, they will catch up strange notions and
listen to silly signs without an atom of truth or common sense in them.
So some ignorant Folks once believed that a witch, or some witchy Folk
with an evil eye, might look upon them and cause them harm, or make them
meet some danger.

And they pretended that hanging a bit of coral somewhere about them
would keep off a look from "the evil eye," and that making children wear
a piece of it would charm away sickness and act as a medicine. Now did
you ever!

Chinese Folks and Hindoos have made most exquisite and wonderful
carvings of the coral of the Mediterranean, and there is such a thing as
black coral, also known as brain coral, but it is too brittle to be
worked upon.

Ah, who would not be a Dolphin, merry and free, whisking through deep,
still water, coasting over coral sands, and diving and sporting through
coral groves!

Nor is this the only rare and curious place through which I rove,
chasing my comrades, wandering about in search of caverns below, and
sweet music above, while forever making war on my enemy, the
flying-fish.

You see, these fish can cut through the water, reach the surface, then
really fly with finny wings across short spaces right in the air. They
think themselves smart, and are great braggarts.

One morning a flying-fish was bent on worrying me, swishing its flapping
fins directly before my face, then darting upward, sending the spray
cross-wise into my eyes. I made a snap or two at the vexing creature,
but as I missed him he became bolder, and stopped a race I was having
with one of my mates.

Suddenly I made a great leap after the flier, but up he went, up, up,
and I after him, sharp! Further up he went, and I pursued. He laughed,
fish-fashion, his big mouth sprawling way across his face as he sped
above the surface.

I poked my nose into upper air and saw which way he was going, and to my
joy he made a dip just as up went my beak again, and I had him, squeezed
securely between my jaws.

Of all the wriggling and squirming, the begging and the pleading that
ever you saw or heard! But I did not want to eat him, nor did I mean to
kill him, either. But I did mean to teach old Mister Flier a lesson,
showing it was neither wise nor in good taste to torment a fish-fellow
that was ever so much larger and stronger than himself.

So down, down I went, until I reached a cell in a coral grove, and in I
popped his Majesty, and sat down and grinned at him. My turn to show a
wide mouth now.

Did you know a fish could tremble? That fellow trembled and shook as if
he had a fishy fit when he found himself in that den, with a great
Dolphin's eye on him. Perhaps it was indeed "an evil eye" to him. He
could have slipped out and away would I only move and give him room. Oh,
no, not just yet! I lashed the water with my strong tail, and "made up
eyes" at him, I am afraid, in a truly evil way.

Then I began to feel that it was neither kind nor noble to carry my
punishment too far, so off I slowly sailed, and out from his tight
corner slid my slippery prisoner. And he tormented me no more. I did not
mean to harm him, and do not think I did, but he slipped sideways
through the water ever after that.

It must be that he jammed a fin in his haste to escape from his cubby,
but I see him often, and always with that sideways gait. I hope he is
cured forever of making of himself a pester and a plague.

[Illustration: "MY TURN TO SHOW A WIDE MOUTH NOW"]

I was glad to see that he still could fly, and that swift as an arrow he
could dart over and under, through and across, the thousand winding ways
of our coral groves.




CHAPTER IV.


THE MERMAID'S CAVE

As I have never been in a truly house, I cannot know of all the kinds of
carpets or coverings that Folks use on the floors.

Yet I have had peeps at very lovely carpets, as in a ship's cabin, and I
know that velvet and fine, beautiful straw, as well as other kinds of
nice carpets, must be used in what Folks call their houses.

Oh, but never has a floor of wood been covered with such wonderful
material, or covering of such marvellous workmanship, as that over which
I have roamed, and on which I have rested all my life. Yet, except in
deep waters, I will not pretend that my carpets are always very soft.

In the deeper waters that I love, there are miles and miles of soft,
blue mud, that to a Dolphin is far more luxurious and enjoyable than the
thickest of velvet or the most closely, evenly plaited straw could be.
But when, after a long, delightful journey, I visit the regions of
shallower waters, ah, the beautiful things I could bring you, were there
a tunnel, a car, or an air-shaft to convey me safely to land!

What are these shining, many- things I see lying about, with all
kinds of fishes sailing around and playing with, as a child plays with
blocks or cards?

Shells! all kinds and shapes, many of them rough outside but smooth and
glossy as glass inside.

What is a shell? You know the word "marine," called ma-_reen_, means
belonging to the sea, so shells are marine curiosities, for they are
always found in or near the sea. And they are really the hard, outer
covering of some sea-animal or other.

But how can I describe shells such as I have looked upon a thousand
times? You have seen some kinds, I know, but they would not even pass as
samples of the splendid shapes and tints that lie scattered around my
floor. A few Folks have made a study of the different kinds of shells
that have floated or been carried to the shore, and have been able to
tell the class of sea-animals to which they have belonged. They once
were the coats or outside garment of a swimmer or a clinger of the sea.

One day a mother-Dolphin missed her boy-Dolphin, and as he was quite a
young fellow, she felt much distressed. Away she sailed, peering amidst
the many objects covering the sea-floor.

Do you suppose it is an easy matter to find a fish that has got lost? I
caught the flying-fish because he never got far away from me. But here
was a young rascal that had gone off roaming, almost before he knew how
to feed himself, and search as she might, nowhere could his mother find
the rogue of a runaway.

If you will believe it, he was gone a week, then back he came, his eyes
as big as saucers. You see, I know how to say some things that Folks do;
by and by you will find out how I learned them.

Master Dolphy had a story to tell. He made us understand in
fish-language that he had found a wonderful, wonderful cave, where a
party of mermaids had collected a lot of shells, oh, enough to fill a
great house!

Now, I can't tell a thing as to the truth about mermaids. But "they
say," that is, Folks and fishes say, that they are strange, fascinating
creatures, with the head, shoulders, arms, and breast of a beautiful
woman, and part of the body and the tail of a fish. Sometimes they are
called sea-nymphs; others call them sirens.

Have you ever lived by the sea? And on stormy evenings, when rain was
rattling on the window-pane, and the wind went screaming around the
house, have you ever imagined there were queer calls, and have you seen
strange shapes thrown up by the waves?

Or have you ever heard an old sailor or an old fisherman tell stories of
the deep? If not, you cannot take in the kind of spell or enchantment
that lingers about the sea after listening to these sounds or hearing
these stories. They are all mixed up with the "myth" stories you heard
of a little way back.

But these stories have been told ever since the world was young. And the
mermaids are said to be daughters of the river-god that have lived ever
in the deep and sounding ocean.

And they were strange and weird--that is, wild, unnatural, and witching.
They would appear in both calm and stormy weather.

Sirens were sometimes thought to be different from mermaids, but we
fishes know them to be one and the same thing--that is, if they exist at
all. It used to be said that a mermaid murmured, but that a siren sang,
with dangerous sweetness. Both murmur and both sing, one as much as the
other.

They will all at once be seen poised on perilous rocks, their long and
splendid hair floating back in the wild wind, their eyes shining like
stars, their faces bright and glorious, their white arms and gleaming
shoulders rising like snow from midst the dark and stormy waves.

Ah! the singing, the beckoning, and the coaxing of a mermaid! Let me
tell you how they work.

They have a sly, four-legged creature on land, all dressed in fur, and
sporting a fine, thick tail, and they say that when this Madame Puss
wants to catch a bird that is wheeling in the air, she will manage to
first catch its eye. Then the little creature will not be able to look
away, but will wheel and circle, and circle and wheel, all the time
coming nearer, until, if no one frightens Madame Puss away, she will
keep her yellow eye fixed on the eye that she has caught, until the bird
flies close to her and is caught.

This is called "charming a bird." And the truth must be that poor
birdie, after catching sight of that great, shining eye, does not see
Madame Puss herself, but only the bright eye, and being unable to look
away, flies nearer and nearer the strange, glittering light, until
Madame Puss makes a spring, and all is over.

[Illustration: "WHITE FACES SEEMED TO RISE AND RIDE ATOP OF THE FOAMING
BILLOWS"]

Just so, it is said, the sailors cannot look away from the fair,
wonderful creatures tossing their rich hair, beckoning wildly, singing
and singing with a sweetness that is not natural or earthly, until, what
with the beauty and luring, and voices of honey, the poor sailormen are
close against the rocks, and do not seem to know that they are charmed
or harmed when the waters close softly over them.

I do not know whether I have ever seen a mermaid or not. But when I took
that dangerous voyage up into the storm circle, I saw strange shapes
that I never saw before, and heard sounds that were new to my ear. Two
or three times I thought I saw streaming hair, and white faces seemed to
rise and ride atop of the foaming billows.

But when one is very much excited, will not imagination produce almost
any kind of an object that happens to come into the mind? Ah, I am
afraid so. Still, there are both Folks and fishes that believe in the
mermaids and their songs, and what am I that I should dare dispute them!

Yet--let me whisper--I have heard that Folks who do not know so very
much, will tell about "goblins," "spooks," and "catch-ums," and whenever
there is talk about the mermaids and the sirens, I think of those Folks
who believe in creatures that "never were."

But it would not do to talk in my watery home as if I had no belief in
mermaids, because, you see, as most fishes have never been with Folks,
and learned a thing or two from them, they do not know any better than
to believe in these sweet, dangerous creatures.

So, now, here came Dolphy, with flapping fins, wild eye, and his story
of a mermaid's cave. Then a party was made up to go and see the rare and
amazing place.

Well, it did look as if some creatures of surprising taste and skill had
brought together a collection of shells such as are never seen above the
surface of the sea, and formed, indeed, a cave fit for a mermaid's home.

I know little about time, but it must have been days and nights I stayed
in the enchanting place, roving hither and thither, rubbing my fins
against the soft, smooth shells, and half wondering how they really came
to be grouped together in such shining rows.

And the colors! And the shapes! Some were well-opened on the inside, and
looked as if entirely covered with pink enamel. They were of clear,
ivory white, pinkish white, pale rose, deep rose, pale yellow, or straw
color, orange yellow, blue and green mixed in glossy sheen, shades of
pink running into rich reds, purples and grayish pinks, making the fair,
sweet mother-o'-pearl.

Some were cup-shaped, having deep hollows. Should you hold your ear
fairly shut into one of these, it is said you would hear always as often
as you so held it, the roaring of the ocean. And a roaring sound you
would hear, in very truth. Yet, let me tell you! Take a common china
cup, shut your ear into it, and the same roaring will be heard.

Is that old ocean? No, it is simply the sound of your own blood coursing
through your veins.

A wide-awake Frenchman once wrote that, could you look within your own
body and see the engines pumping, the valves opening and shutting, the
pipes working, and the whole machinery in action, it would surprise and
perhaps scare you into the bargain.

We have got a little off the track, but it is well to know the facts
about these things. Now we will return to the shells.

Look at that splendid one shaped like a bowl, but with pink lips rolled
back, through which can be seen changing tints of pink and white. Here
is one that is oblong, lined with rose enamel, but having strange horns
pointing out at one side.

See that beauty, wide open and shaped like a saucer. Dear me, hold it a
little toward the light, and there gleams every color of the rainbow on
the polished surface. Here is another, striped with hair-like lines in
red, yellow, blue, and brown. There is a fan, wide open, beautifully
polished; it has no handle, but its coloring is in nearly all tints, and
changeable in the light. What a lovely thing is this heart-shaped shell,
with a line along the centre, and beautifully blending colors on either
side. There are many of these scattered around.

Now, how can I describe these singular yet perfect shapes banked up
against rocks that are completely hidden on the inside of the cave?

Over there is a funny, snarly head, with fine shreds of hair laced over
a smooth shell. Ah, what gleams of  light shoot through the hair!
Here is a bird's nest on a bar, lying side of a wide fan, shaped like a
palm leaf; in the plaitings are curled all colors, pink, blue, yellow,
and green.

This shell is like a foot with eighteen or twenty toes, smooth, shining,
and of flesh-like tints. This is like a bat's wing, with lines and webs
finely tinted. Look at that enamelled jug with a pipe at the top. Near
by is a perfect leaf on a small branch.

Do see this worm, ringed around with dark purple stripes. Isn't it
queer? In that corner is a trumpet, splendidly  inside. That
shape over there must be a fool's cap, one mass of sheeny tints inside.
Here are beautifully rounded little bowls, all scalloped around the top;
ah, see them glisten and change shades as the light strikes them!

See the beetle-bugs, with horns sticking out in every direction. And if
here isn't a perfect shape of a lady's slipper! The lady should wear it
inside out, so all could see its exquisite mother-o'-pearl.

Here are shells exactly like the feathery wing of a bird, and how birdie
would enjoy snuggling his soft head against the exquisite smoothness of
these shells!

Is that a large carrot split lengthwise? It looks like it, but no carrot
split along its length ever brought to light such rainbows as glint
along these. Those shells looking so much like rattles would amuse a lot
of babies if they could play in the mermaid's cave. They would try to
catch the fine colors, and might cry when they changed and changed, and
then appeared to dance away.

Those serpents, some half uncoiled, some out straight, will not bite.
Those flashes are not from dangerous eyes, but are only fine shell
tints.

Here are a lot of squat jars for holding small ornaments. They are
ornaments themselves. Are they not? And what queer combs with three
shining rows of teeth, each tooth a point of color.

Really, I might as well stop. There would be no use in trying to
describe a third of these shapes, and as to coloring, with all I have
said, you can have but a faint idea of the soft, brilliant, ever
changing hues and gleams in the mermaid's cave.




CHAPTER V.


MY GARDENS

Long as I have talked of shells, I must say a word or two more about
shells that are used as stones.

When I was on land a little while, I noticed in front of a few houses,
walks, that I knew at a glance were made from clam-shells. So I knew
that Folks must have machines for pounding up shells. Such a beautiful,
clean, white walk as they make!

Then, before some fine-looking houses were great conch-shells, oblong
and twisted in shape, but pink and smooth inside. Many of them were
placed around lovely fountains, or urns of flowers.

But I want to tell of one very beautiful and costly kind of ornament
that is made from some conch-shells, pronounced "konk."

Romans and Greeks, but especially the Greeks, used to cut "cameos" from
the onyx-stone. And men skilled in cutting fine stones and jewels have
cut most exquisite cameos, or faces, from the kind of conch-shell that
has two layers, one dark, the other light.

The word "cameo" is said to mean one stone upon another. The "queen
conch" is a splendid shell, with two distinct layers, one white, the
other pink. Out of the white layer is carved perhaps the face of a
woman, with a crown of flowers on her head, or it may be the head of a
knight, with a helmet on.

But think of the fineness of the tools that must be used, the tiny files
and chisels in carving the lovely, delicate shells. The shell cameos
with the pink lower stone and white upper figure, are most expensive of
all; other shells have brown or black lower layers, and these are not as
choice.

But when you see your grandma or great-auntie wearing a lovely
old-fashioned breastpin, bound around with gold, and holding a pink
stone, shining like crystal, with a white carved head or other figure
standing out from the lower stone, you may know it is a very valuable
ornament, and was probably made from one of the finest shells found in
the sea. Imitations are made from porcelain, but very likely grandma's
or great-auntie's will be the real conch-shell.

Perhaps you did not know that there are fair and beautiful gardens in
my watery home. You may have picked up sprays or bunches of seaweed when
running along the beach, and some were perhaps quite pretty, while
others had turned brown and looked much like leather.

Would you like to come with Lord Dolphin and take a swim through an
ocean garden? You would doubtless see such a sight as you had never
dreamed could be seen down in the blue water.

All right, I'll turn into a fairy godfather, clap you on to my back,
give you the lungs of a mermaid, to prevent your choking in the water,
and then, come on! Or, rather, I should say, come down!

"Why, why! A fairylike scene indeed!" you cry.

Now you have not taken on "the evil eye" in coming to the bottom of the
sea, but you have taken a "fish eye." Folks usually hate fishy eyes, but
no matter, you couldn't see the first thing down here with your own
natural peepers, so be thankful that for a time you can see with eyes
like mine.

Now, this is not a coral grove, it is a garden of flowers, and when you
exclaim again, "Oh, but I had no idea of this!" I should have to reply,
"Of course you hadn't; no more had I of the strange and beautiful
things on the land, until I had to live there a little while."

Folks call these flowers, such as they have seen of them, weeds,
seaweeds. And I suppose they have to come under that name, as they are
not planted from seeds, but are a wild growth. Ah, but some great
Planter or Gardener surely put all these wonderful shapes and splendid
tints in the soft earth of a sea-garden. And it is all so blithe and
gay!

Here are nearly all the shapes in bushes and almost trees that you have
in your garden on land. And as to flowers, there are leaves, spires,
cups, bells, tassels, very much such as you see in your garden at home.

See these beautiful crimson leaves, as large as the top of a small
table, and cut in such fine, even scallops around the edges, and here is
one with a great pad of yellow right on the crimson. My! My! is it not
 richly?

Here are leaves shooting out like rafts, thick, like the leaves of a
rubber-tree, but larger and of a deep red. You might take a sail on one
of them. And here is a bush, shooting upright from its muddy bed, all
covered with pink sprays, on which are pink blossoms. Doesn't it make
you think of a syringa bush? Only these flowers are pink.

Next comes this plant with a large olive green stem covered thickly
with branches, bearing flowers resembling pink roses. Were this plant
taken to the church some Sunday morning and placed on the pulpit-stand,
you may believe that after the service Folks would go crowding about the
altar, eager to find out its name and whence it came.

What a clucking of surprise there would be when it was told that not
from any hothouse whatever, but from the depths of the ocean came the
full, lovely sea-roses.

Are these sprays of pink coral? No, they are sea-rods and branches. If
you pinch the thick stems, water will ooze out, for they are partly
hollow, like the pond-lily stem.

I do not wonder you look with questioning surprise at that next plant.
It is like a mass of purple bushes, a very sweet growth rather hard to
describe. All through the delicate branches are what look like small
dark berries, seen through a mist of pinkish, hairy spires.

Don't start. These merry fishes darting through the next clump of bushes
have only come to smell of the carnation pinks the bushes bear. Are they
not strangely like your garden carnations?

See the fishes nip at those singular pink flowers with a thick fringe
hanging from the edges. It is a shame to spoil them, but some fishes
always seem to think that graceful fringe droops down on purpose for
them to peck at.

Now if the baby were only here, you could seat him on these broad, flat
leaves, with delicate spires all along the edges, and all of so deep a
crimson they surely would attract any child.

What a queer flower! like the backbone of a fish with all the little
bones at the side standing out stiff and pointed, and all in pinks and
purples.

Right in the midst of another plot of thick, flat leaves rises a mass of
pink sea-lilies, and they are beautiful; but do examine the next bed of
leaves. Are they not curious? A thick, hollow-looking stem goes through
the middle of them, and on one side of the stem they are a deep pink, on
the other side, yellow.

Here are flowers shaped like horns and trumpets. What a forest of pinks,
greens, and yellows! And here are the greens. Such greens as you have
never seen before.

Now suppose you were going to have a party. What decorations you could
have if only the ocean blooms would keep fresh for you to use. There
would be masses of fine furze that would be perfectly beautiful to crowd
over the pictures; silky threads that, placed on creeping green plants,
would look lovely carried along the table; yellow flowers in the midst
of masses of fine sea-mosses, and sea-ferns would make your little mates
wonder where the fresh, strange things grew.

And there could he yards and yards of ribbons. Ribbons? Yes, long, long
sprays of yellowish green sea-ribbon, four or five inches wide, going
down to narrower ones not more than an inch in width.

Perhaps you would like some sea-thistles. Here they are, in thick
bunches, fine and hairy, in faint, fair shades of green. And what can
this be that looks so much like a sponge? Ah, it is a tuft of moss with
green spires shooting up in the middle.

Take care! Here are bunches of cactus with prickly leaves. Look out!
don't catch your toe in those sea-ferns. Even that sweet green
maiden-hair fern might pin down your foot so firmly that it would take a
fish's sharp tooth to set you free.

You may ask, why are not these beautifully  and curiously shaped
things brought on shore and sold, as they might be, for much money? And
why are they not at least put where Folks can see, learn about them, and
admire them?

But wait a moment; what would be the effect if any one took a bunch of
your garden roses, pinks, or lilies, put them under water, and kept them
there? They would very soon be a drooping, shapeless mass. They are
formed for a different element, and could not nourish under water,
especially salt water.

Just so ocean-flowers, and sea-tints can only live in their own element,
which is not air, but water. And the faces on our water-<DW29>s--for we
have them--would soon fade in what to them would be lifeless air, just
as the garden <DW29>s would lose their bright faces in the salt sea.

Great quantities of seaweeds float ashore and are often dried and used
as fuel, or perhaps are put around garden plants to make them grow.

But nothing that grows on the land, or in the water, can exchange places
one with the other and keep alive. It is all very curious, and more than
I can understand. Yet every creature and every plant is fitted to the
place it grows in, and is natural to it. The food, the flowers, and the
land for the use of Folks, and the food, the plants, and the water for
the use of fishes, are just what the nature of each requires. What
wisdom!




CHAPTER VI.


MY TREASURE GROUNDS

Are you tired? No? Well, that is no great wonder. It is ever so much
easier to glide through the water on the broad back of a great fish than
to ride horseback, or in a car.

My sails or fins flap quietly to and fro, the water parts readily to
make us a path, no rough winds blow away your hat, there is no danger
way down here that a boat will bang against us, and roll you off into a
cavern or a cave.

Now I am taking you into deeper water, which still is not so very deep,
but I want to show you some other strange things in the world I live in.

Here we go sailing in and out of rocks, but do not be alarmed, I know
them all. Perhaps you wonder what it is that we keep pressing against,
something soft and smooth that sends extra sprays of water over us. What
can it be?

Well, now, put on your thinking-cap. What does your mother wash the
baby with? What does Michael wash the carriage with? And what is that
object in the wire holder in the bath-tub?

"Ah, a sponge!" you exclaim. Yes, and here is where they grow. "What,
sponges grow?" you ask. Certainly. And just as with the coral, it took
Folks a long time to find out whether sponges were plants, shrubs, or
insects.

Now it is decided that the sponge is an animal growth. And the same as
with coral, the tiny creature that it starts from dies, and out from the
skeleton, or frame, branches the sponge that sometimes grows very large,
and sometimes is of a kind that remains small. One may be as big as a
mop, others no larger than an egg.

Down in the blue Mediterranean Sea are found the best sponges that grow.
They are called "horny sponges," and grow in great masses, fine, yet
tough and durable. A sponge from the Mediterranean, called the "Turkey
sponge," will cost three times as much as a coarser, more brittle one
from other waters. They are porous, or full of little holes and hollows.

We fishes like to bang against the sponges and feel the sudden spray
dash over us. Water we have all around and about us, but a shower-bath
is not as common a thing.

When you buy a sponge, it is round, flat, or cone-shaped. Now see what
they look like under water. Here is a little tree, you say. Oh, no, it
is only a mass of sponges piled together and branching out as they grow.

Here are fans, arches, tiny caves, and many different shapes forming a
sponge-garden. Queer, isn't it? Oh, lots of things are queer until you
learn about them.

Would you like to see how I wash myself? Don't laugh so loud, you might
scare the fishes. I know very well that it seems to you as if I was
washing or bathing all the time, but there! Some kind of a water-bug has
plumped right down onto my head, and left a lot of sticky sand on it,
that the water does not wash away.

Now don't be alarmed. I won't let you be swept from my back. I am only
going to wash my head. See me swim directly under this mass of sponge,
swaying out from a rock. There will be no bits of sand clinging to me
after I have been sponged a few moments.

Here is a sponge that looks as if almost as large as your sun when it
rises out of the water, but if you squeeze that fellow dry--the sponge,
not the sun--it will not begin to be the size it is now. You could press
it into a bowl of moderate size when dry, but then take it to the pump
or the faucet, fill it with water, and my, what a balloon!

Sponges were once called "worm-nests," and were thought to be a mere
kind of seaweed. But looked at under the sea, it would be known at once
that they are neither nest nor weed.

Once in awhile sponges seem to spring directly up from the mud without
anything to cling to, but generally they are fastened to rocks or large
stones, and spread out and out from them. Here they look so much like a
kind of herb, that Folks who make a study of things in nature, and are
called naturalists, for a long time took them to be a kind of sea-plant,
and for years it was a puzzle as to just what they were.

All are full of pores or layers of small cells, and some are quite
pretty from having a fringe about the cells like eyelashes. There are
others curiously shaped, looking like coral sprays, and here and there
they look like helmets; then there is another form that seems to have
long fingers running out, and is called "mermaid's gloves."

The form called "Venus flower-basket," large and basket-shaped, might
answer for a mermaid's work-basket, and hold her thimble, scissors, and
thread. You had better take care! A mermaid may be near this very
moment, and hear you laughing. And remember, she could spin you round
from one end of the sea to another, then leave you high and dry on a big
rock in the middle of the ocean.

Now, on what do sponges feed? Dear sakes, as if they fed on anything!
Yet they do. Although they branch and bunch out in the forms described,
yet they do not roam about, but only float or swim out as far as they
can stretch themselves while firmly fastened to a rock. Here they take
in specks or particles that float through the water; they pass through
the open pores of the body, and answer for food. The water constantly
passing through them serves to refresh and keep them round and healthy.

Here we come to a perfect thicket of sponges, and see the fishes playing
"tag" all around and about them. There! that sly little fish, like a
salt water pickerel, nipped the tail of that great clumsy
porpoise--porpus--so hard, I heard the big fish grunt. The teeth of a
pickerel are fearfully long and sharp.

Oh! Oh! What is that most beautiful thing we see shining with a faint,
sweet glow, down at the bottom of the sea? It is in plain sight, nestled
in the heart of a conch-shell. It is round, has a milk-like murkiness,
yet pinky, changing lights like tiny stars, that glint and gleam as you
look upon it.

Now believe me! Of all the treasures of the sea I have told you of or
shown you, this is far and away the most precious.

It is a pearl. Only once in a great while will so perfect and so
valuable a gem be found near my deep water home. And although we are not
so very far east, yet it would be called an "Orient," or an "Eastern
pearl."

Perhaps it has floated in its polished pink bed from a far eastern sea.
I told you a little while ago that I must explain what an oyster had to
do with Folks that sported too many jewels, and why it might be amused
at the sight.

Did you know that inside of an oyster-shell grew the lovely, costly
pearls that Folks will give a great deal of money for? Why, Queen
Victoria of England had a Scotch pearl that cost two hundred dollars.
Queens and princes, rich Folks, jewellers, and dealers in precious
stones, will give great sums of money for necklaces, brooches, or rings
that have in them the precious Oriental pearls.

I had to listen very hard to find out what I did about pearls. But I
found that they have been known, talked of, and written about, almost
ever since the beginning of the world.

Oyster-beds are generally much nearer the shore than most kinds of
shells. It is said to be when an oyster gets restless or uneasy that a
strange substance enters the edge of the shell, and after a time a pearl
is formed. And while many pearls are found in oyster-shells, they also
are often found fastened to the pink bosom of a conch-shell.

There are black pearls of much value, but though rare, they are never
half as beautiful as a white or pink one. Some pink pearls are very
lovely, and when large-sized, are also very expensive.

The pearl we see lying here is a splendid white one, and my! the money
it would bring! Pick up that shell, carry it with you to a jeweller, and
see the dollars the fair round gem will bring to your purse. You could
buy yourself beautiful clothes, or a pony, or could have with it a fine
party, flowers, favors, treat and all.

What? Don't dare to? Oh, me, me, what a little coward! I can't pick it
up very well. If I took it in my mouth, down my throat it would go. If I
tried to catch it up with a fin, over into the water it would bounce.

Never mind. Look at the sweetly beautiful conch-shell, with the
splendid gem resting so softly on its pink, polished side. And let me
tell you what I think.

The opinion of a fish, even a great lordly one, may not be worth much,
but to me that exquisitely lovely stone, reposing on that exquisitely
lovely shell, is a far more beautiful thing to look upon than the jewel
ever could be when fitted into the costliest setting of gold.

Now it is just as it was made, and I think that Whoever formed and set
that pearl knew more about real beauty and fitness, and what is simple,
natural, and very beautiful, than all the Folks and jewellers in the
world.

Look at that white splendor. Don't you agree with me?




CHAPTER VII.


WHAT I SAW ONE DAY

Now I do not know how brave an English lord may be or how much it may
take to scare him, but I, Lord Dolphin, inhabitant of the great
Mediterranean Sea, was scared nearly out of my wits and skin by the
sight I saw one day.

But there is this to comfort me: if I was a coward at the sight, there
were plenty of other creatures in the sea to keep me company. Mercy on
us! Such a scuttling and rushing, such a whisking and a whacking, flying
and plunging, I for one never saw before. There was actually a chorus of
flapping fins and thumping tails as we raced for our lives.

Was it a steam-engine or a monster boiler that was coming right down
from upper regions into our midst? Or, had some new sea-monster fallen
from the skies to drive us from our hunting and fishing grounds?

We knew something about sea-lions, the huge creature that you may have
seen at the Zoo, or in a tank at the park, lifting itself like an
enormous sea-horse, and roaring like the animal whose name it bears. But
a sea-lion would not have cut through the water from way above. It would
have come steering along like a great black vessel, puffing and blowing,
while all the time it would have been a creature of the sea, and we
should have known it, and not have been so terrified.

Or, had a whale come bearing down from upper waters, as they sometimes
do, there would have been a disturbance first, made by the spouting and
slashing that our instinct at once would have told us came from some
monster of the deep.

Or, again, had it been the hulk of a vessel that could not stand some
violent storm, oh, yes, we should have known what that was, too. But
now, off tore the fishes, mad with terror, big fishes, little fishes,
fat fellows, lean fellows, pleasant ones, and grumblers.

I laughed, yes, with all my fright I had to laugh at such a funny sight.
I was behind what Folks call "whole schools of fishes," only they speak
of "a school of fish," meaning many of one kind, but the madcap crowd I
looked upon was made up of almost every size and sort.

[Illustration: "OFF TORE THE FISHES, MAD WITH TERROR"]

I saw a porpoise--porpus--my enormous cousin, all of fifteen feet
long, crowd in midst a multitude of swift little swimmers, as if he
meant to make them help in spinning him through the water faster than he
could go by himself. Then on the back of another Dolphin, I saw a crowd
of little fishes that seemed so stiff with fear, they had been knowing
enough to cling to the back of the great fish, making a boat of him to
bear them to a place of safety.

Paddling sideways, I caught a glimpse of the flying-fish that had been
my tormentor. All at once I stopped short.

Now they say that some Folks are very curious. I do not mean that they
are odd or amusing to look at. But they have curiosity, and want to peer
and pry into things. It is not at all nice to want to find out all about
other Folks' affairs. It belongs to a poor, mean nature to want to do
that. But to want to inquire into matters for the sake of getting true
knowledge is right and worthy even for a fish.

And suddenly I had determined to see just what that amazing creature
could be. If it caught and swallowed me alive, it might, but--it would
take a pretty big swallow to make away with Lord Dolphin. I confess to
going to work very much like a sneak. But it was quite easy, seeing all
the other fishes had made off and left me a clear field, to hide midst a
bed of tall sea-bushes.

So, very gently back I paddled, with motion slow and noiseless, to the
region where the monster had come down.

How shall I describe it? In the first place, I had never seen such a
shape before. The time when I was borne aloft on high waves, and looked
into a ship's cabin, I saw forms something like unto this one in some
respects, but, dear sakes, not with such hideous parts! But now, to name
at once and describe afterwards,--

It was a _diver_!

The diver belongs to the Folks family, but, bless us, his rig! Imagine,
if you can, a black object, with a great bunchy machine of a head, and
for the rest, a mass of fixtures, such as would puzzle a far more stupid
creature than a Dolphin to make out.

I have seen a diver many times since then, and am now able to tell a
little about the fantastic-looking being. Of course, there is very much
more to be known, but if you remember what I say, it will give you some
idea of a diver's outfit that may linger in your mind, to be added to as
you grow older.

First, then, close to his skin are warm woollen garments, sometimes two
or even three sets of them. If the weather is cold, he may have on two
or three pairs of warm stockings. How would you like being bundled up in
that way? Yet that is only the beginning.

Close to his head is a woollen cap coming down over his ears. Thick
shoulder-pads keep his outside suit from grazing or hurting, and it may
be that other pads are about his body. He next goes into an outside suit
of India rubber, covered both inside and outside with a tanned twill
which is water-proof, and the rubber itself has been treated in a way to
make it very hard and lasting. There is a double collar about the neck,
of tough, sheet rubber, and one is to draw well up about the neck.

He must have assistance in getting into these rigid clothes, for it is
hard working the arms into the stiff sleeves, and forcing the hands
through cuffs which are made to expand or let out as they are drawn on,
then close tight in some odd way with rubber rings and joints at the
wrist, making the sleeves perfectly air tight.

Great care is taken in dressing the diver. Everything must fit
perfectly, every screw must be properly wound in, every strap and buckle
made fast, or the poor diver may be in great danger. His breastplate of
copper is fastened on with metal clasps or bolts. A fixture at his back
steadies the weights both back and front, weighing forty pounds each.
These weights, it must be, are in some way supported by the ropes with
which they let him down.

Such boots! Stout leather, with soles of lead, securely strapped on, and
weighing at least twenty pounds each. A band fitted about his waist is
kept in place by strong braces.

Then his helmet! Tinned copper, and full of screws, pipes, and hooks. On
the face part were three openings as in a lantern, in which were screwed
plate-glasses, or bull's-eyes. These, of course, were to see through,
and stood out like little telescopes, or half-tumblers, with brass
frames around them called "guards" which protect the glass, that is
thick and strong.

There were also queer valves, or tubes, in the helmet for letting out
bad air, yet so contrived that no water could get in. A hook was on
either side, through which ropes must pass.

The diver can breathe while under water by means of an air-pipe, and by
pulling on a life-line, can make his wants known to those above.

When the diver is all ready to descend, a man at the pump begins
supplying him with air, and down he goes, first on an iron ladder at
the vessel's side, then on long ladders of rope, with heavy weights at
the ends.

I peeped from midst great weed-pads, and saw the diver as he reached the
bottom of the sea. Do you wonder I trembled, yet was amused at what I
saw? In his hands this time--for I saw him more than once after
this--was a great hook and a light bag with a wide-open mouth. And what
do you think? He had come to get sponges from the blue sea. Of course
not at very great depth.

He knew his work. With the long hook, sponge after sponge was torn from
its clung-to home on the slippery rocks, and quickly popped into the
bag. He always moved backwards. If anything stopped him, rock, wreck, or
floating weeds, he could turn slowly and carefully around, and see what
it was. But should he meet an object suddenly at the fore, it might
break even his shielded glass. Then he must immediately give the signal
to be raised aloft.

Divers must begin by going down only a little way under the water, as it
takes great skill and long practice to be able to go safely into deep
water. A diver has about him a coil of line connected with the ladder,
which he unwinds as he moves away; but by winding it about him again,
he can find his way back to the ladder.

If two divers go down at the same time, I notice they take great care
not to let their air-lines or life-lines cross each other's, and so get
entangled. It might be a very serious affair to get them mixed.

I see that divers may go down from either a barge, a sailing vessel, or
a large yacht, but there must be a deck that can hold the necessary
machines and rigging to help them in their work. By casting down heavy
pieces of lead, the sailor-Folk can "sound," or tell the distance to the
bottom of the sea. The diver's line must always be twice the length of
the distance he goes down.

I did not find this all out at once. Oh, by no means, but by not running
away I gradually learned a great deal. And I was so glad I saw the queer
performance! The frightened fishes were not quick to come back to their
playground, where such a looking object had come swinging down, and when
he came again the next day, and the next, I had the place to myself, and
watched while he pretty well cleared that region of its fine, valuable
sponges.

The next time I saw a diver it was in deeper water. I was sporting to
and fro at another time when there was just such a panic among the
fishes as I had seen before, and just such a scramble.

Down, down came the fearsome looking object, while I mixed myself in
with a mass of sea-flowers, and keeping perfectly still, was not
noticed. The diver's dress was much the same as the other's had been; he
went backwards in the same cautious way, but instead of a long-handled
hook, he carried only a queer bag that was let down to him by ropes.

The bag was deep, and had a frame along the top, with a scraper fastened
to it. And what do you think again? He began scraping in all the
conch-shells he could see that had what looked like a dab of mud or a
milky spot on the side.

He was after pearls!

Divers often fish for pearls midst oyster-beds, and in more shallow
water, but there are nets or dredgers also used for that purpose. But I
at once knew that very valuable pearls must often be found in
conch-shells and deep-sea oyster-shells, as the diver scraped in all of
both that he could find.

Remember! All kinds of shell-fish are called "mollusca," have white
blood, and breathe not only in the water, but also in the air.

And will you believe it? I have found out considerable about the signals
that a diver gives to the man at the pump on deck.

If he wants to be pulled up, be gives the life-line four sharp pulls.
If he wants more air, he gives one pull at the air-pipe. Two pulls on
the life-line, and two pulls on the air-pipe, given quickly one after
the other, mean that he is in trouble, and wants the help of another
diver. One pull on the life-line means "all right."

There are many other signals I could not find out the meaning of, so can
say nothing about. My instincts, as well as what I have noticed, tell me
that a diver must be in the best of health, must be rather thin, have
excellent eyesight, sound lungs, steady nerves, and a strong heart. The
work is not easy. I wonder if work that pays well is often easy? I do
not believe it is.

There used to be a strange machine in use called the "diving-bell." A
great cast-iron cage, shaped something like a bell, let down by ropes,
and so heavy that its own weight would sink it. Divers could sit inside,
and fresh air was supplied by a force-pump. Bull's-eyes of heavy glass
let in the light.

This must have frightened the fishes quite as much as did the diver,
although it was not as frightful in appearance.

After a time, when the diver came down, some of my mates, seeing I was
not a bit afraid if only hidden from sight myself, stayed near me under
the broad seaweeds, but most of them fled far and wide at his approach.

The divers themselves are not free from danger. Great sea-serpents or
sharks sometimes make it hot for them, but they are watchful, spry, and
being "Folks," with power to think and plan, can generally look out for
themselves and their safety.




CHAPTER VIII.


MY STRANGE ADVENTURE

Now come the most exciting and in some respects the hardest events of my
life thus far.

I have told of my great love of music, and have also said that the
Dolphin family is a very sociable one. Yes, and I could grow fond of
Folks, I know, if only they could live in the sea, or I could live on
the land. But as neither of these things can be, I must be content with
liking them at a distance.

One afternoon I was full of sport, and felt lively as a cricket. Oh,
yes, I know the small, frisky fellow you call a cricket, with his little
old black legs, and have heard him sing. So on this calm and lovely
afternoon I began leaping upward instead of forward, and all at once I
heard sounds of music floating across the upper sea. You can believe I
floundered alongside, and oh, such sweetness as trilled out into the
clear air!

The truth was, a great steamer was crossing the Mediterranean with a
pleasure party on board. What I heard was the music of a brass band. My!
My! Isn't it enough to delight the heart of any creature that has ears
to hear? It actually would make a fish dance.

Now I didn't know it, but I made such plunges upward that my great dark
body could be seen in the clear water, and some sailors began "laying"
for me, half suspecting what might happen.

Well-a-well, I got so full of music, joy, and friskiness, that all at
once I gave a tremendous jump, and flounced right on to the deck of the
fine steamer. Had I not been so utterly surprised, I should immediately
have flounced back again to my ocean bed "quick shot," as I afterward
heard a sailor say. But dear, deary me! I hesitated just a moment too
long, and when I made a flop intending to bounce away, lo! a stout rope
was about my body, and another about my tail, and I was a prisoner!

Then the Folks all gathered about me, and the sailors went laughing off,
saying something about "making the fellow's bed."

Oh, it was all very strange and unnatural. And in a few moments I began
panting for breath. Just as you would gasp, if by accident you popped
over from a boat into the water. Only you would gasp for want of air,
and I was gasping from too much of it.

But it was not long before I was taken to a side of the vessel, and
after straining and tugging with my great weight, I was indeed bounced
into water, but when I tried to swim, oh, misery! what kind of a place
was I in?

Only a tank, some twenty feet long by fifteen feet wide, filled with sea
water!

Truth was, there was a man-Folk on board who had caught, and wanted to
carry to a great park in some far-distant land, a crocodile. Boo! a
great sea-reptile that I wonder any one should want to have around, even
as a curiosity. It had been taken from the river Nile in Egypt, much
farther up the Mediterranean borders than I had ever been.

The crocodile did not live, so I was put into its tank, and that was the
"bed" the sailors had made, by filling it with salt water. Shade of my
royal grandfathers! how long I could live in such pinching quarters was
a question.

I was given plenty of herring--so called--and other kinds of fish to
eat, and "Folks" visited me about every hour of the day. There were
children on the steamer, pretty little dears, that never tired of
talking to me, and between them all, passengers, sailors, and the
children, I learned how Folks talked, and a great many other things
besides.

One fine, manly little fellow visited me constantly. He was voyaging for
his health, and took much pleasure in sitting beside the tank, book in
hand, yet watching my movements, and once he said something that made me
wish I could talk in the language of Folks. Yet before I tell what it
was, I want to say that there was one thing I did not like at all, but
was not able to let the Folks know it.

The sailors called me "Dolly!" A great name to give a lord of the sea, a
fellow bearing the title I owned!

The next morning after my capture, a really fine Jack--sailors are all
"Jack," you know--came rolling toward my tank, and sang out in
sea-breezy fashion:

"Hulloo, Dolly-me-dear, how do you find yourself to-day?"

I liked his hearty manner and cheery voice, but, dear me, I was "Dolly"
to every man-Jack on board after that, and to all the others as well.

So this dear little man once said to me:

"Oh, Dolly, how I wish you could tell me about things under the sea! I
know if you could only talk my way, you could tell stories by the hour,
and what pleasure it would be to listen."

"Stories, indeed, my pretty," I thought, and I did wish I could open my
wide mouth and entertain the little fellow with a few sea yarns. And now
that in some way I can make Folks understand me, I only hope that my
young steamer friend, among others, will see and enjoy Lord Dolphin's
story.

Then the lady-Folks were fine, with their pretty dresses, nice manners,
and soft voices. But I did so like the children! One cute little nymph
of a girl was crazy to get near me, yet nearly scared to pieces if I so
much as looked at her. Oh, she was so fair to see, with her golden hair
flying back in the breeze, eyes blue as the sky, and her sweet, dimpled
face full of smiles!

She would come running up to the tank with a great show of courage,
crying bravely: "Hi, old Mister Dolly! I'se goin' a-put your great eye
out!" But when the eye half-looked at her, off she would scud, and all I
could see was a mass of flying yellow hair, a whisking of snowy skirts,
and my little nymph was gone.

[Illustration: "ONE CUTE LITTLE NYMPH OF A GIRL WAS CRAZY TO GET NEAR
ME"]

A dozen times a day she would appear, and as long as I remained under
water, she would hover near. There was a railing around the tank, which
was sunk in, lower than the deck, so she could not fall in, nor could I
possibly get out, but as soon as my head began rearing above the water,
scoot! little Amy was missing.

We had no hard storm while steaming over the bright Mediterranean. But
one day the little man, whose name was Roland, said to wee Amy:

"Clear day, isn't it?"

And Amy replied, woman-fashion, "Yes, booful day, but what sood you do
if there comed a big storm, and we all went ricketty, rockerty, and
couldn't stand up single minute? Wouldn't you be 'fraid?"

"N-o," said Roland, speaking slowly and thoughtfully, "I don't think I
should be much afraid, but I should want to keep quiet and think. What
should you do?" and he smiled.

"Oh, me would say my prayers, and keep a-sayin' them," said the child,
soberly, then she added, "and up would go my prayers into the sky, and
so I needn't be frightened a bit."

Now I don't know in the least what "prayers" mean, but I remembered at
once what that other child had done in the storm, and it made me think
that the Friend the other little girl trusted lives up in the sky, and
can hear when Folks tell that they need help. How lovely! Really, Folks
ought to be very thankful for all they know!




CHAPTER IX.


LORD DOLPHIN ON LAND


Well, we sailed and we sailed, but it was poor sailing for me, and every
hour I longed to make a monster jump, clear the railing, and splash into
the splendid bed beneath the cooped-up tank.

But Folks know how to make things strong and secure, and once or twice,
when I tried leaping, it was only to bang my sides against the edges of
the tank, and spatter the deck far and wide, making extra work for the
sailors.

After a time, we ran through what Jack called "the Strait of Gibraltar,"
and were in the great Atlantic Ocean, and one day Jack said to me:

"Now then, me hearty, we're making a bee-line for New York City, and
it's a big tub they'll be giving you at the fine park, I'm thinking."

So I knew I was to take the place of the crocodile, and be made a show
of.

I tried to make the best of things. Folks amused me by standing near
the tank and talking about affairs. The band played delightfully. Salt
water was freshly supplied me every day or two. I learned that my fare
was much greater than any other voyager's on board, that is, it cost
more to carry me.

But think of a passenger that would have been perfectly thankful to have
been thrown overboard! I was that same fellow.

After about ten days, which seemed like a year to me, there was great
excitement all around. Such a running and tramping, such a waving of
hats and handkerchiefs. Ah! we were landing. Roland came to my side and
exclaimed:

"Good-by, Dolly, old boy! I may see you sometime in your new quarters."
Little Amy lisped a hurried, "By, by, Dolly, good Fishy!" and after an
hour or two, all the passengers had left the boat except the man who
owned me and myself.

Nor was I moved until the next day. Then I was made to swim into a
smaller tank, not much longer than I am, in which I could not have
lived, it seemed to me, a single day.

[Illustration: "I WAS GIVEN MY FIRST RIDE ON LAND"]

But I was next boosted, tank and all, on to a great dray, drawn by
creatures called "horses." Sailors joked, drivers laughed, a crowd
peered at me with eyes full of wonder, and I was given my first ride
_on land_, yet in what to me was a mere puddle of water.

Ah, how new and strange! The jolting and the bouncing, the noise, the
whistles, the voices, rattling of heavy wagons, booming of cars overhead
and along the ground, strange calls and ringing of bells, the whole
mixed racket nearly stunning me, for my hearing is very acute and sharp.
I cannot tell you how distracting it all was to a poor, pent-up fish. I
felt like anything but a "lord" then.

And what was this unknown matter floating into my squeezed-up basin?
Dust! Something I had never seen before, and--I didn't like it!

The sea for me, first, last, and forever!

At the park I must say things were fine, and could they only have been
more natural, I should have had considerable fun. I found that a Dolphin
on land, although kept in a small square pond, was indeed quite a
curiosity, both to young Folks and older ones.

I imagine that a quantity of coarse salt was thrown every little while
into the larger space now given me, else I could scarcely have lived.
But my keepers were attentive and kind, the young Folks threw me many
kinds of strange food, and "Bless my lights!" as Jack would say, what
kind of things do Folks live on!

Great quantities of little oblong balls, snapped out of a shell,
different from any kind of shell I had ever seen before, were thrown me
nearly every hour of the day. Oh, yes, they were called "peanuts."
Really, I liked them, only it took about a hundred to get enough to chew
on.

Then there were white things, making me think of some small shells, as
there were peeps of yellow inside. Ah, I remember again, they were named
"popcorn." I preferred the peanuts.

I didn't know what to think of "taffy." Jinks! how it stuck to a
fellow's jaws! Bah! the whole lot of stuff called "candy" was too sweet
and sticky.

Some jolly-looking people that came to the park for what they called a
"picnic," tossed me queer food named "doughnuts," and "ginger-snaps."
Yes, I liked them, too, particularly the snaps. Then there was an
everlasting fruit named "banana" that I liked at first, it was so soft
and slipped down so easily, but I had too much of it, and grew tired of
it.

I grew tame, would raise my great head close to the strong wire-netting,
and over would come all kinds of what Folks call "treats." Once,
however, a man-Folk threw me part of a small round, dark roll or stick,
such as men-Folks put in their mouths at one end, and send out smoke
from the other end.

Boo, bumaloo, what stuff! bitter and horrid! Men-Folks must have a queer
taste to enjoy tasting and smoking such black, weedy things. One taste
of a "cigar" was enough for me.

I was sorry not to see the boy Roland or the little girl Amy again, but
I think they may have gone to some other land-place, and so could not
come to the park. But although I saw so many other pleasant young Folks,
I did not forget them.

Then, to my sorrow, just as I was getting used to things, although
always in a homesick way, I heard the keepers talking, and learned that
I was to be moved to another great city, where there was to be an
"exposition," or a showing of strange and useful things from many
different lands and seas, really an "exhibition."

I began growing flabby and thin. My spirits were at ebb-tide, very low.
I felt as if pining to death. Ah, me! I would have given all the pearls
of the ocean and sea, could I have got hold of them, to be back in my
own dear Mediterranean groves.




CHAPTER X.


HURRAH!

Then the day came when I was again made to swim into that despised
little tank. It was put on to a dray as before, and I was given my
second ride on land. May it forever be my last!

The roar of the great city again filled my ears, dust troubled my eyes
whenever I raised my head. I was faint, weary, and wretched. I could
feel that I had grown lighter from loss of flesh, because of the
unnatural life that I was leading.

How I wished I might escape! That some great and powerful Friend would
help me. But I was only a fish, had only fins and tail to aid me, that I
knew of, and those were at present of but very little use.

At length the boat was reached. There was some confusion, as they were
"short of hands," which it appears meant they had not as many men at
the dock as were wanted. But the tank was got on board, and men ran for
the railing that was to be put around the edge.

Their backs were turned for an instant. Oh! Oh! could I give a mighty
lurch, bound over the deck-rail, and be free? No waiting this time! I
slashed upward in a tremendous "heave-to." Whack! I struck the rail,
wriggled quick as lightning over the side, and hurrah and hurrah! I was
swimming the wide, free river!

Not my own sea. No, there must be first the shortest cut I could find
into the ocean and salt water, then there would be many days of sweet,
wholesome journeying and paddling before home grounds could be reached,
but reached they would be all in good time.

Folks say that if Madame Puss, that land-creature who does not love the
water overwell, is carried miles from her home in the dark, she will
find the way back again. And I felt sure that, once out into the harbor,
I could strike a bee-line for a far opposite shore, cut through the
narrows at Gibraltar, and enter like a returning monarch on my own proud
domain, the fair blue Mediterranean Sea. Oh, hurrah again!

I heard a loud and echoing shout as my great body splashed into the
water, caught the sound of rushing feet, and saw heavy ropes with
strange loops at the ends, that were flung overboard in hopes to
entangle me, and bring back their great fancy fish into that tank again.

Oh, no, Mister Sailorman, and Mister Deckhand. No, no! I had seen and
felt quite enough of being on land, thank you, to last me all the rest
of my life. And as the Dolphin family is very long lived, I hope that
many years of sweet, delicious freedom, and enjoyment of my native
element, are yet before me.

And if there was a great king of the Dolphins, as there must be a great
Friend of the Folks, that guides our affairs, I would send him a letter
a yard long, full of thanks for my freedom. It may be there is such a
king, but real knowledge of such things is way beyond me.

I saw strange craft as I boomed along, always giving them a wide berth.
And such fishes! Did you ever see an angel-fish? Don't ever wish to if
you haven't. It ought to be called evil spirit fish. In appearance it is
one of the quaintest, ugliest creatures that swims the sea. Some Folks
call it monk-fish. It is all of four feet long, has fierce, goggly eyes,
and a round, wicked-looking head, that seems nearly separated from the
rest of its thick body by a thin, short neck. Then such a
vicious-looking tail! Oh, you had better keep clear of an angel-fish.

A toad-fish looked like an enormous, swimming toad. Bless me! I caught
sight of a shark as I came well out into the ocean. He was more than
twenty feet long. Think of that! But they are thirty feet sometimes. His
great, fleshy, powerful tail takes him along as he looks from side to
side for his prey. I saw his pointed nose and his rows of awful teeth,
one over another.

There are sharks that can bite a man in halves. Once in awhile we see a
shark in our Mediterranean, but they do not abound there. Yet now and
then Mister Diver-man has had to rush for his life to reach the friendly
ladder when the disturbance under water to right and left has warned him
that one of these sea-monsters was approaching. Oh, they are dreadful
creatures, and greedy, too. They will follow vessels for miles and
miles, expecting that cast-off food will be thrown into the sea, as it
often is. Their instinct tells them that food is likely to drop from
vessels, and it does, indeed.

I also saw a sea-snipe, or trumpet-fish, but, oho, without a tooth! He
made me think of a scorpion that has a poisonous, dangerous tail.

I came upon a funny sight while still in the Atlantic Ocean. A whole
school of whales went rushing along in a body, and pretty soon I saw
what it meant. Then it was more funny for me than for the poor whales.
Some whalers, men who go out in vessels to catch these enormous fishes
for their flesh, their oil, and their bones, were banging great heavy
pieces of tin of iron against stones, so frightening the whales that
they crowded in a body into a little creek or inlet.

This was just what the whalers wanted them to do. Because, once in the
narrow place, so many of them could not escape, and it became easy to
capture them. Men-Folks do really know a very great deal. It makes me
afraid of them.

An urchin-fish would make you laugh. Some call it a sea-hedgehog. It
looks as if covered all over with great thorns, and a baby sea-urchin
looks as if it was all ready to burst, it is so thick and round.

A sunfish was an odd piece. It had round eyes, and the queer little fins
just back of its neck looked like shoulder-capes. It was so fat it had
to swim with a waddle.

The herring I so much like for food are to be found in nearly all
waters, and abundant, sweet, and inviting. Famous ramblers they are,
going in great parties of thousands in number, through wide tracts of
ocean and sea. I have found that a great deal of "money," whatever that
may be, is made by Folks out of the herring fisheries, along the
Atlantic seacoast.

And let me whisper: Do you like sardines? Well, some Folks say that
herring do not live in the Mediterranean Sea, that ancient Folks knew
nothing about them, but that what we know as herring are really
sardines. These are caught in great numbers, pickled in some way, then
soaked in oil, are put in little tin boxes, tightly sealed, and sent all
over the world.

But let me whisper again, and this makes Lord Dolphin smile; it may make
you laugh. But honestly, they _say_ that immense numbers of little
herring, or alewives, a little fish very much like a herring, are caught
on western shores of the Atlantic, pickled, packed in oil, and sold for
sardines.

Isn't it all very funny? If I eat sardines and call them herring, and
folks eat herring and call them sardines, why are we not square? But as
I want to be very honest in all I say, it may be that in speaking of the
herring I so much prefer, I ought to say they are found oftenest at the
far western part of the Mediterranean, where the ancient Folk were not
so likely to explore.

After I had sailed for days, gliding like a streak through the deep,
untroubled water, I came again to the Strait of Gibraltar.

Oh, with what a thrill of delight I saw this time, in these far happier
days than when last I passed through it, this narrow outlet from ocean
to sea. I went through first in a tank, I returned with the broad ocean
for my glorious bed.

I know now that the strait was named for the enormous Rock of Gibraltar,
and that it once was called the Strait of Hercules.

Now "Hercules" is another "myth" you will study about in those old Greek
fables called "mythology." He was one of the gods, and famed for his
tremendous strength. The story goes, that, coming up to a monstrous rock
in the Atlantic Ocean that entirely separated it from the Mediterranean
Sea, Hercules, wishing to pass through from ocean to sea, rent the great
rock into two parts, so making a passage through. And this was how the
narrow outlet came to be called the Strait of Hercules.

Now, for many years the passage has been called the Strait of Gibraltar.
But the two great rocks at the entrance of the strait are called "The
Pillars of Hercules."

Well, through the dividing narrows I darted, and was home again!

And I am thankful to know three great and precious words that Folks have
taught me: Friends! Liberty! Home! Are there any better words than
these? Perhaps so. But I have not learned them. Yet Folks know so much
more than a fish, even a lordly one, can understand, that it is quite
likely they may be acquainted with words having a grander meaning than
these.

But I, Lord Dolphin, traveller and story-teller, want to repeat, that I
am very, very grateful to any One I ought to thank, that I find myself
among friends again, free, and in my own glorious home, the bright blue
Midland Sea.


THE END.





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Dolphin, by Harriet A. Cheever

*** 