Show lIe Had Seen Mermaids H About mermaids said the captain as he stood upon the unfinished end of the seawall and surveyed the landlubber E i > t c l repOrtt of the Sin Ffiinclaco Call with r an espresaion if pitiful condesceI1s19ii why Ive sted the most wonderfUl inthat line Well we were erin thing in thiChina Sea One night just after wed passed the Formosa group I was r used out of my bunk by the mate who I Mermaids aboard Out I sings out jumps and gets on deck in the turn of a helm jumps You can splice my mams if there wasnt bout twenty of the biggest mermaids mer-maids a floppin around the deck l evor seed Two of em had go the feUowg watch cornered and was akissm em The on mate had took to the riggin after hailing mo I was a leotle sprisod though Id seen mermaids afore but not moren one at a time 1 odies says I i make yourselves at home says I and you bet your hawsers they did They quit floppin and all pot on the rail side by side a holdin their tails in their hands and commenced to sing and I just tell vou they whooped things up I They Bkipped through the Sweet By and j By1 and took several reefs in tho Red j White and Blue and slewed to port on A Life on the Ocean Wave in beautiful I stvle Didnt see them again did you I asked a landlubber Well yes the next day we was becalmed i be-calmed There wasnt a smell of iv breeze and whistlin for it didnt do any good I I was maddern a stuck whale for I i wanted to make a quick passage Suddenly i I Sud-denly sees a commotion in the water and shiver my binnacle lights if them mermaids warnt swimmin around us One of em boarded us as slick as could be and says Give us a rope Yell I throwed em one and Ill lay to on a lee shore if thev didnt tow us until we Btrnrk a breeze Got the rope right m their mouths about fifty of em and pulled us along I was so bleeged to em that I tinowed em u mass o lookinglasses clocks and shoeblackin out of the cargo H Next day we struck another calm and I spected the mermaids would pull us out again They were all around a don nin their mornhV uniform in the glasses Hey says I tow us alonj will Jonl Well no sooner had 1 hailed em than every one of em looked at the clocks which they had slung around their necks Sense us cap they said we see its just time to keep our appointment at the I bottom and CUES me if they didnt all l I disappear |