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"I'm Cap'n Joe," was the reply. "Cap'n Joe Weedles, formerly o' the brig 'Gladsome'

an' now a slave o' Zog at the bottom o' the sea."

"J--J--Joe Wee-Weedles!" gasped Cap'n Bill, amazed. "Joe Weedles o' the

'Gladsome'! Why, dash my eyes, mate, you must be my brother!"

"Are YOU Bill Weedles?" asked the other. And then he added, "But no, you can't

be. Bill wasn't no mermaid. He were a human critter like myself."

"That's what I am," said Cap'n Bill hastily. "I'm a human critter, too. I've jes'

borrered this fish tail to swim with while I'm visitin' the mermaids."

Well, well," said Cap'n Joe in astonishment. "Who'd o' thought it! An' who'd ever

o' thought as I'd find my long-lost brother in Zog's enchanted castle full fifty

fathoms deep down in the wet, wet water!"

"Why, as fer that," replied Cap'n Bill, "it's YOU as is the long-lost brother, not me.

You an' your ship disappeared many a year ago, an' ain't never been heard of

since, while, as you see, I'm livin' on earth yet."

"You don't look it to all appearances," remarked Cap'n Joe in a reflective tone of

voice. "But I'll agree it's many a year since I saw the top o' the water, an' I'm not

expectin' to ever tramp on dry land again."

"Are you dead, or drownded, or what?" asked Cap'n Bill.

"Neither one nor t'other," was the answer. "But Zog gave me gills so's I could live

in the water like fishes do, an' if I got on land I couldn't breathe air any more'n a

fish out o' water can. So I guess as long as I live, I'll hev to stay down here."

Do you like it?" asked Trot.

Oh, I don't objec' much," said Cap'n Joe. "There ain't much excitement here, fer

we don't catch a flock o' mermaids ev'ry day, but the work is easy an' the rations

fair. I might o' been worse off, you know, for when my brig was wrecked, I'd 'a'

gone to Davy Jones's Locker if Zog hadn't happened to find me an' made me a

fish."

You don't look as much like a fish as Cap'n Bill does," observed Trot.

P'raps not," said Cap'n Joe, "but I notice Bill ain't got any gills an' breathes like

you an' the mermaids does. When he gets back to land, he'll have his two legs

again an' live in comfort breathin' air."

"I won't have two legs," asserted Cap'n Bill, "for when I'm on earth I'm fitted with

one wooden leg, jes' the same as you are, Joe."

The Sea Fairies