"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 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?"