The Sea Fairies | Page 4

this water has
always been a subject of curiosity to the inhabitants of the land. Strange
creatures come from the seas at times, and perhaps in the ocean depths
are many, more strange than mortal eye has ever gazed upon.
This story is fanciful. In it the sea people talk and act much as we do,
and the mermaids especially are not unlike the fairies with whom we
have learned to be familiar. Yet they are real sea people, for all that,
and with the exception of Zog the Magician they are all supposed to
exist in the ocean's depths.
I am told that some very learned people deny that mermaids or
sea-serpents have ever inhabited the oceans, but it would be very
difficult for them to prove such an assertion unless they had lived under
the water as Trot and Cap'n Bill did in this story.
I hope my readers who have so long followed Dorothy's adventures in
the Land of Oz will be interested in Trot's equally strange experiences.
The ocean has always appealed to me as a veritable wonderland, and
this story has been suggested to me many times by my young
correspondents in their letters. Indeed, a good many childred have
implored me to "write something about the mermaids," and I have
willingly granted the request.

Hollywood, 1911.
L. FRANK BAUM.

TROT AND CAP'N BILL
CHAPTER 1

"Nobody," said Cap'n Bill solemnly, "ever sawr a mermaid an' lived to
tell the tale."
"Why not?" asked Trot, looking earnestly up into the old sailor's face.
They were seated on a bench built around a giant acacia tree that grew
just at the edge of the bluff. Below them rolled the blue waves of the
great Pacific. A little way behind them was the house, a neat frame
cottage painted white and surrounded by huge eucalyptus and pepper
trees. Still farther behind that--a quarter of a mile distant but built upon
a bend of the coast--was the village, overlooking a pretty bay.
Cap'n Bill and Trot came often to this tree to sit and watch the ocean
below them. The sailor man had one "meat leg" and one "hickory leg,"
and he often said the wooden one was the best of the two. Once Cap'n
Bill had commanded and owned the "Anemone," a trading schooner
that plied along the coast; and in those days Charlie Griffiths, who was
Trot's father, had been the Captain's mate. But ever since Cap'n Bill's
accident, when he lost his leg, Charlie Griffiths had been the captain of
the little schooner while his old master lived peacefully ashore with the
Griffiths family.
This was about the time Trot was born, and the old sailor became very
fond of the baby girl. Her real name was Mayre, but when she grew big
enough to walk, she took so many busy little steps every day that both
her mother and Cap'n Bill nicknamed her "Trot," and so she was
thereafter mostly called.

It was the old sailor who taught the child to love the sea, to love it
almost as much as he and her father did, and these two, who
represented the "beginning and the end of life," became firm friends
and constant companions.
"Why hasn't anybody seen a mermaid and lived?" asked Trot again.
"'Cause mermaids is fairies, an' ain't meant to be seen by us mortal
folk," replied Cap'n Bill.
"But if anyone happens to see 'em, what then, Cap'n?"
"Then," he answered, slowly wagging his head, "the mermaids give 'em
a smile an' a wink, an' they dive into the water an' gets drownded."
"S'pose they knew how to swim, Cap'n Bill?"
"That don't make any diff'rence, Trot. The mermaids live deep down,
an' the poor mortals never come up again."
The little girl was thoughtful for a moment. "But why do folks dive in
the water when the mermaids smile an' wink?" she asked.
"Mermaids," he said gravely, "is the most beautiful creatures in the
world--or the water, either. You know what they're like, Trot, they's got
a lovely lady's form down to the waist, an' then the other half of 'em's a
fish, with green an' purple an' pink scales all down it."
"Have they got arms, Cap'n Bill?"
"'Course, Trot; arms like any other lady. An' pretty faces that smile an'
look mighty sweet an' fetchin'. Their hair is long an' soft an' silky, an'
floats all around 'em in the water. When they comes up atop the waves,
they wring the water out'n their hair and sing songs that go right to your
heart. If anybody is unlucky enough to be 'round jes' then, the beauty o'
them mermaids an' their sweet songs charm 'em like magic; so's they
plunge into the waves to get to the