When Doris was a Mermaid 99

I begin? O, there was the dancing. I
suppose you would not think that you
could dance down under the water? Of
course we did not go right to the bottom :
it was in the green water with the light.
coming from above, and the pale sand just
showing underneath. No one could ever
get tired with dancing, for the water let
ae move through it as a gull moves in

: you just floated and floated as I told
you my hair did. But I had almost for-
gotten to tell you about the gulls.”

“What of them?” asked the Visitor.
“T suppose they would be good friends of
yours?”

“Not at all,” came the answer, promptly.
“They hated us. Sometimes, when the
surface of the water was like a ceiling of
bright glass because of the moonlight, they
would fall asleep on the little waves, and if
we rose suddenly to find how the wind was
blowing, and whether the sea would be
stormy presently, we should wake and
frighten them. And there were other