This was about the time Trot was born, and the old sailor became very fond of the baby girl.  Her real name was Mayre, but when she grew big enough to walk, she took so many busy little steps every day that both her mother and Cap’n Bill nicknamed her “Trot,” and so she was thereafter mostly called.

It was the old sailor who taught the child to love the sea, to love it almost as much as he and her father did, and these two, who represented the “beginning and the end of life,” became firm friends and constant companions.

“Why hasn’t anybody seen a mermaid and lived?” asked Trot again.

“‘Cause mermaids is fairies, an’ ain’t meant to be seen by us mortal folk,” replied Cap’n Bill.

“But if anyone happens to see ’em, what then, Cap’n?”

“Then,” he answered, slowly wagging his head, “the mermaids give ’em a smile an’ a wink, an’ they dive into the water an’ gets drownded.”

“S’pose they knew how to swim, Cap’n Bill?”

“That don’t make any diff’rence, Trot.  The mermaids live deep down, an’ the poor mortals never come up again.”

The little girl was thoughtful for a moment.  “But why do folks dive in the water when the mermaids smile an’ wink?” she asked.

“Mermaids,” he said gravely, “is the most beautiful creatures in the world—­or the water, either.  You know what they’re like, Trot, they’s got a lovely lady’s form down to the waist, an’ then the other half of ’em’s a fish, with green an’ purple an’ pink scales all down it.”

“Have they got arms, Cap’n Bill?”

“‘Course, Trot; arms like any other lady.  An’ pretty faces that smile an’ look mighty sweet an’ fetchin’.  Their hair is long an’ soft an’ silky, an’ floats all around ’em in the water.  When they comes up atop the waves, they wring the water out’n their hair and sing songs that go right to your heart.  If anybody is unlucky enough to be ‘round jes’ then, the beauty o’ them mermaids an’ their sweet songs charm ’em like magic; so’s they plunge into the waves to get to the mermaids.  But the mermaids haven’t any hearts, Trot, no more’n a fish has; so they laughs when the poor people drown an’ don’t care a fig.  That’s why I says, an’ I says it true, that nobody never sawr a mermaid an’ lived to tell the tale.”

“Nobody?” asked Trot.

“Nobody a tall.”

“Then how do you know, Cap’n Bill?” asked the little girl, looking up into his face with big, round eyes.

Cap’n Bill coughed.  Then he tried to sneeze, to gain time.  Then he took out his red cotton handkerchief and wiped his bald head with it, rubbing hard so as to make him think clearer.  “Look, Trot; ain’t that a brig out there?” he inquired, pointing to a sail far out in the sea.

“How does anybody know about mermaids if those who have seen them never lived to tell about them?” she asked again.

“Know what about ’em, Trot?”

“About their green and pink scales and pretty songs and wet hair.”