The Sea Fairies | Page 5

mermaids. But the mermaids haven't
any hearts, Trot, no more'n a fish has; so they laughs when the poor

people drown an' don't care a fig. That's why I says, an' I says it true,
that nobody never sawr a mermaid an' lived to tell the tale."
"Nobody?" asked Trot.
"Nobody a tall."
"Then how do you know, Cap'n Bill?" asked the little girl, looking up
into his face with big, round eyes.
Cap'n Bill coughed. Then he tried to sneeze, to gain time. Then he took
out his red cotton handkerchief and wiped his bald head with it,
rubbing hard so as to make him think clearer. "Look, Trot; ain't that a
brig out there?" he inquired, pointing to a sail far out in the sea.
"How does anybody know about mermaids if those who have seen
them never lived to tell about them?" she asked again.
"Know what about 'em, Trot?"
"About their green and pink scales and pretty songs and wet hair."
"They don't know, I guess. But mermaids jes' natcherly has to be like
that, or they wouldn't be mermaids."
She thought this over. "Somebody MUST have lived, Cap'n Bill," she
declared positively. "Other fairies have been seen by mortals; why not
mermaids?"
"P'raps they have, Trot, p'raps they have," he answered musingly. "I'm
tellin' you as it was told to me, but I never stopped to inquire into the
matter so close before. Seems like folks wouldn't know so much about
mermaids if they hadn't seen 'em; an' yet accordin' to all accounts the
victim is bound to get drownded."
"P'raps," suggested Trot softly, "someone found a fotygraph of one of
'em."
"That might o' been, Trot, that might o' been," answered Cap'n Bill.

A nice man was Cap'n Bill, and Trot knew he always liked to explain
everything so she could fully understand it. The aged sailor was not a
very tall man, and some people might have called him chubby, or even
fat. He wore a blue sailor shirt with white anchors worked on the
corners of the broad, square collar, and his blue trousers were very
wide at the bottom. He always wore one trouser leg over his wooden
limb and sometimes it would flutter in the wind like a flag because it
was so wide and the wooden leg so slender. His rough kersey coat was
a pea-jacket and came down to his waistline. In the big pockets of his
jacket he kept a wonderful jackknife, and his pipe and tobacco, and
many bits of string, and matches and keys and lots of other things.
Whenever Cap'n Bill thrust a chubby hand into one of his pockets, Trot
watched him with breathless interest, for she never knew what he was
going to pull out.
The old sailor's face was brown as a berry. He had a fringe of hair
around the back of his head and a fringe of whisker around the edge of
his face, running from ear to ear and underneath his chin. His eyes were
light blue and kind in expression. His nose was big and broad, and his
few teeth were not strong enough to crack nuts with.
Trot liked Cap'n Bill and had a great deal of confidence in his wisdom,
and a great admiration for his ability to make tops and whistles and
toys with that marvelous jackknife of his. In the village were many
boys and girls of her own age, but she never had as much fun playing
with them as she had wandering by the sea accompanied by the old
sailor and listening to his fascinating stories.
She knew all about the Flying Dutchman, and Davy Jones' Locker, and
Captain Kidd, and how to harpoon a whale or dodge an iceberg or lasso
a seal. Cap'n Bill had been everywhere in the world, almost, on his
many voyages. He had been wrecked on desert islands like Robinson
Crusoe and been attacked by cannibals, and had a host of other exciting
adventures. So he was a delightful comrade for the little girl, and
whatever Cap'n Bill knew Trot was sure to know in time.
"How do the mermaids live?" she asked. "Are they in caves, or just in
the water like fishes, or how?"

"Can't say, Trot," he replied. "I've asked divers about that, but none of
'em ever run acrost a mermaid's nest yet, as I've heard of."
"If they're fairies," she said, "their homes must be very pretty."
"Mebbe so, Trot, but damp. They are sure to be damp, you know."
"I'd like to see a mermaid, Cap'n Bill," said the child earnestly.
"What, an' git drownded?" he exclaimed.
"No, and live to tell the tale. If they're beautiful, and laughing, and
sweet, there can't be much harm in them, I'm sure."
"Mermaids is