~

206 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. [1v.

 

she was delighted to have so satisfactorily tested the
efficacy of the Rabbit’s powders.

Within a very short distance, however, another
interruption took place. A huge Dog-fish, of fierce
and brutal appearance, reared his head out of the
water, and in an awful voice shouted, ‘ Look out for —
Grimjaw!’ as he made a snap at her right-hand oar,
which, had he succeeded in catching hold of, he would
undoubtedly have severed in two, and thus seriously
-impeded her progress. Most luckily, however, he
missed it by a hair’s breadth, and in another instant
packet number two was in his mouth. Bursting as
it entered his jaws, it filled them completely with a
quantity of the strongest glue, which was not only
unpleasant to taste and smell, and nearly choked him
at once, but, on his first snapping his teeth to pre-
vent more of the nauseous stuff coming therein, held
them together as with a vice, and in fact stopped his
jaw in a prompt and effectual manner.

On rowed Molly, better satisfied than ever: with
the result of her journey, as far as it had gone, and
in most excellent hopes of success. She was now
scarcely thirty yards from the island, when there arose
from the sea the most awful creature which she had ever
seen in the shape of a fish. Its head was more ugly
. than she had supposed possible, its mouth was armed
with a double row of teeth, sharp as a needle, and
evidently strong enough to make short work of any
creature upon which they were once fastened ; it had
little arms instead of ordinary fins, and a tail of
mighty power, which it swung viciously to and fro as
if to stir itself up to action,