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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?"

"No," said Trot.

"The pain I had then," remarked Anko, "was caused by a kink in my tail about

three hundred feet from the end. There was an old octopus who did not like me,

and so he tied a knot in my tail when I wasn't looking."

What did you do?" asked Cap'n Bill.

"Well, first I transformed the octopus into a jellyfish, and then I waited for the tide

to turn. When my tail was untied, the pain stopped."

"I--I don't understand that," said Trot, somewhat bewildered.

"Thank you, my dear," replied the Sea Serpent in a grateful voice. "People who are

always understood are very common. You are sure to respect those you can't

understand, for you feel that perhaps they know more than you do."

"About how long do you happen to be?" inquired Cap'n Bill.

When last measured, I was seven thousand four hundred and eighty-two feet,

five inches and a quarter. I'm not sure about the quarter, but the rest is probably

correct. Adam measured me when Cain was a baby."

"Where's the rest of you, then?" asked Trot.

Safe at home, I hope, and coiled up in my parlor," answered the Sea Serpent.

When I go out, I usually take along only what is needed. It saves a lot of bother

and I can always find my way back in the darkest night by just coiling up the part

that has been away."

"Do you like to be a sea serpent?" inquired the child.

"Yes, for I'm King of my Ocean, and there is no other sea serpent to imagine he is

just as good as I am. I have two brothers who live in other oceans, but one is

seven inches shorter than I am, and the other several feet shorter. It's curious to

talk about feet when we haven't any feet, isn't it?"

The Sea Fairies