CHAPTER IX.

'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!

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.

'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 rideon 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.

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, theysaythat 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.

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