Page 207 - Adventures in shadow-land

against any creature with mer blood in his veins.
The king thought this talk of theirs really meant

something, and I suppose they thought so them­
selves in peace-times, but when the annual meet­

ing came, about a week after the declaration of
war, only two members made their appearance,

and they told each other that all the men of ■
the society had enlisted and all the women were

busy making their clothes and packing their
knapsacks. The king was very much surprised to
find that these peaceable soldiers fought harder

than any one else, and when he was at last forced
to conclude peace on the most humiliating terms,

it was the ex-President of the non-resistance soci­
ety that insisted on a surrender of his most import­
ant frontier fortress.

“ I thought you believed in non-resistance,"
said the king, greatly disgusted.

tf So 1 do, your majesty, for other people,*' said
the ex-President, respectfully, and the king liad to

give way.
But this is not a chronicle of the politics and

history of the sea country, but only of one partic­
ular merman’s fortunes. Our merman was young