When Doris was a Mermaia 97

remember? Most of us forget things of
that kind.”

‘“‘] don’t seem to remember,” explained
the child. ‘But I know everything that
mermaids and mermen do, just as well as I
know the ways of men and women and
children. And I could not know if T had
not been one of them, could I?”

“T should say it was quite impossible,”
replied her companion, with a seriousness
at least equal to her own. ‘“ But won't
you tell me all these things that you-know?
I shall understand them better while I look
down into this clear water and watch the
brown weed.”

“That is like my hair used to be,”
said Doris. “It was very long then, and
it floated about my head, moving just as
restlessly as the weed does, because it is
never so still that there are not little
movements under the water. It never
troubled me, though, as it does nowadays,
when the wind blows hard, for it just

floated and floated like a living thing, and
G