The Mermaid

a relief so to look. On a small green hillock by the roadside thistles grew thickly; they were in flower and seed at once, and in the sunshine the white down, purple flowers, and silver-gre

that there was nothing wild or strange about himself to attract the man's attention. The cart raised no dust in the red clay of the road;

ld not be much blamed for seeing a mermaid if he did see one, such a man would rouse the neighbourhood, and take no rest till the phenomenon was investigated; or, if that proved impossible, till the subject was at least thoroughly ventilated. The ideal man who acted thus would no doubt be jeered at, but, secure in his own integrity,

to him like the window of a lovely soul. It was true that she had laughed and played; it was true that she was, or pretended to be, half a fish; but, for all that, he would as soon have held up to derision his mother, he would as soon have derided all that he held to be most worthy in

e must have come because he was at home. He was not attached to his cousin, who was an ordinary young person, but hitherto he had always rather enjoyed her society, because he knew tha

te shut so that h

en?" asked she, pr

about the waist, and that the seams were noticeable because of its tightness. He remembere

portively, "till you tell me exactly

y age much," he said, with

" said

oing for this age," said he. It

fresh cap on. Her cap, and her presence in that room, denoted that Mabel was company. She immediately began to make sly rema

immediately thinking of the subject of marriage, and sooner or later betraying her thought. Heretofore he had been so accustomed to this cast of mind that, when it had tickled neither his sense of humour nor his vanity, he had been indifferent to it. To-night he knew it was vulgar; but he had no contemp

ive to this sorrow, for he was thinking continu

ly upon what food the child lost in the sea had fed while she grew so rapidly to a woman's stature. The present meal was such as fell to the daily lot of that household. In homely blue delft cups a dozen or more eggs were ranged beside high

ought to himself. The s

his own sense of responsibility he had decided to tell his father what he had seen, and his telling was much like such confessio

s his father was loc

y. I saw a very curious thing down at the shore to-day, b

ummer twilight just revealed the outline o

a big trout. Its body was brown, and it looked as if it had horny ba

a fish like that, Cai

I know what a p

said the elder man, aban

about five or

id it look as if it

ss; but, father, I tell you its h

with a man stuck

n too promptly, he feigned to consider it. "It wasn't

ore here, any way," added the old man.

d off which we lost baby Day. It lay hal

ot remark that in that case Caius must have seen

adn't my gu

s far as he might, he said outwardly: "I shouldn't have like

in its eyes sometimes." He was slowly shuffling round to the next door with his keys. "Well,

any woman paying a visit hereabout, shouldn't w

upon him sternly. "I thoug

erhaps; but there isn't any woman here that could possibly be acting like that-and

whether the thing you saw was a woman or a fish, for you must ha

ence. "It lay pretty much under the w

n to joke. "I was thinking you must have lost your

id in a minute"-boldly-"i

d man had no very distinct idea in his mind attached

a dog sw

aius, "it wa

you can take it to the musee up at your college, and have it stuffed and put in a case, w

is conversation, he knew t