While the sea serpent looked at the visitors, they ventured to look at him.  He certainly was a queer creature, yet Trot decided he was not at all frightful.  His head was round as a ball, but his ears were sharp-pointed and had tassels at the ends of them.  His nose was flat, and his mouth very wide indeed, but his eyes were blue and gentle in expression.  The white, stubby hairs that surrounded his face were not thick like a beard, but scattered and scraggly.  From the head, the long, brown body of the sea serpent extended to the hole in the coral wall, which was just big enough to admit it; and how much more of the body remained outside the child could not tell.  On the back of the body were several fins, which made the creature look more like an eel than a serpent.

“The girl is young and the man is old,” said King Anko in a soft voice.  “But I’m quite sure Cap’n Bill isn’t as old as I am.”

“How old are you?” asked the sailor.

“I can’t say exactly.  I can remember several thousands of years back, but beyond that my memory fails me.  How’s your memory, Cap’n Bill?”

“You’ve got me beat,” was the reply.  “I’ll give in that you’re older than I am.”

This seemed to please the sea serpent.  “Are you well?” he asked.

“Pretty fair,” said Cap’n Bill.  “How’s yourself?”

“Oh, I’m very well, thank you,” answered Anko.  “I never remember to have had a pain but three times in my life.  The last time was when Julius Sneezer was on earth.”

“You mean Julius Caesar,” said Trot, correcting him.

“No, I mean Julius Sneezer,” insisted the Sea Serpent.  “That was his real name—­Sneezer.  They called him Caesar sometimes just because he took everything he could lay hands on.  I ought to know, because I saw him when he was alive.  Did you see him when he was alive, Cap’n Bill?”

“I reckon not,” admitted the sailor.

“That time I had a toothache,” continued Anko, “but I got a lobster to pull the tooth with his claw, so the pain was soon over.”

“Did it hurt to pull it?” asked Trot.

“Hurt!” exclaimed the Sea Serpent, groaning at the recollection.  “My dear, those creatures have been called lobsters ever since!  The second pain I had way back in the time of Nevercouldnever.”

“Oh, I s’pose you mean Nebuchadnezzar,” said Trot.

“Do you call him that now?” asked the Sea Serpent as if surprised.  “He used to be called Nevercouldnever when he was alive, but this new way of spelling seems to get everything mixed up.  Nebuchadnezzar doesn’t mean anything at all, it seems to me.”

“It means he ate grass,” said the child.

“Oh no, he didn’t,” declared the Sea Serpent.  “He was the first to discover that lettuce was good to eat, and he became very fond of it.  The people may have called it grass, but they were wrong.  I ought to know, because I was alive when Nevercouldnever lived.  Were you alive, then?”