One morning a flying-fish was bent on worrying me, swishing its flapping fins directly before my face, then darting upward, sending the spray cross-wise into my eyes.  I made a snap or two at the vexing creature, but as I missed him he became bolder, and stopped a race I was having with one of my mates.

Suddenly I made a great leap after the flier, but up he went, up, up, and I after him, sharp!  Further up he went, and I pursued.  He laughed, fish-fashion, his big mouth sprawling way across his face as he sped above the surface.

I poked my nose into upper air and saw which way he was going, and to my joy he made a dip just as up went my beak again, and I had him, squeezed securely between my jaws.

Of all the wriggling and squirming, the begging and the pleading that ever you saw or heard!  But I did not want to eat him, nor did I mean to kill him, either.  But I did mean to teach old Mister Flier a lesson, showing it was neither wise nor in good taste to torment a fish-fellow that was ever so much larger and stronger than himself.

So down, down I went, until I reached a cell in a coral grove, and in I popped his Majesty, and sat down and grinned at him.  My turn to show a wide mouth now.

Did you know a fish could tremble?  That fellow trembled and shook as if he had a fishy fit when he found himself in that den, with a great Dolphin’s eye on him.  Perhaps it was indeed “an evil eye” to him.  He could have slipped out and away would I only move and give him room.  Oh, no, not just yet!  I lashed the water with my strong tail, and “made up eyes” at him, I am afraid, in a truly evil way.

Then I began to feel that it was neither kind nor noble to carry my punishment too far, so off I slowly sailed, and out from his tight corner slid my slippery prisoner.  And he tormented me no more.  I did not mean to harm him, and do not think I did, but he slipped sideways through the water ever after that.

It must be that he jammed a fin in his haste to escape from his cubby, but I see him often, and always with that sideways gait.  I hope he is cured forever of making of himself a pester and a plague.

[Illustration:  “My turn to show A wide mouth now”]

I was glad to see that he still could fly, and that swift as an arrow he could dart over and under, through and across, the thousand winding ways of our coral groves.

CHAPTER IV.

THE MERMAID’S CAVE

As I have never been in a truly house, I cannot know of all the kinds of carpets or coverings that Folks use on the floors.

Yet I have had peeps at very lovely carpets, as in a ship’s cabin, and I know that velvet and fine, beautiful straw, as well as other kinds of nice carpets, must be used in what Folks call their houses.

Oh, but never has a floor of wood been covered with such wonderful material, or covering of such marvellous workmanship, as that over which I have roamed, and on which I have rested all my life.  Yet, except in deep waters, I will not pretend that my carpets are always very soft.