Page 195 - Adventures in shadow-land

22 77ie Merman and ike Figure-Head*

o f them heathen young women your head is always
so full of, Master Torrey?"

“ Young women! Why they were goddesses,
man, or a sort of goddesses. Was there not the

white-footed Thetis, mother of Achilles? and did
she not come to him with all her attendant nymphs

— Melite, and Doris, and Galatea, and Panope?”
“ I've hearn tell of her*' said Job, touching up

the wreath on Flora’s head; “ it’s in Lycidas:

1 The air was calm, and on the level brine
Slick Panope and all her sisters played.’

“ Jest so ; I kinder like to read that piece. It
don’t seem to have so very much meanin' to’ t, I

must say, but I sort of like the sound of it. Them
nimps lived in the sea, or folks thought they did,

didn’t they?1’
“ Yes, Job, as we live on the land. I ’m by no

means sure that I haven't heard and seen Nereides
and Oceanides myself when I’ve been out by

moonlight on the bay or round the rocks, ”
“ I guess they never was any round these parts \

it’s too cold for ’em. I knew an old sailor once

that said he’d seen a mermaid, but I suppose you