L Frank Baum

The Sea Fairies L Frank Baum

"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 thebluff. 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 fartherbehind 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 sailorman had one "meat leg" and one "hickory leg," and he often said the wooden one was the best ofthe two. Once Cap'n Bill had commanded and owned the "Anemone," a trading schooner that pliedalong the coast; and in those days Charlie Griffiths, who was Trot's father, had been the Captain'smate. But ever since Cap'n Bill's accident, when he lost his leg, Charlie Griffiths had been thecaptain 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 stepsevery day that both her mother and Cap'n Bill nicknamed her "Trot," and so she was thereaftermostly calle