Page 250 - Adventures in shadow-land

spirit in the harbor. The Spanish and Italian
sailors said innumerable prayers to the saints and

bought little blessed candles* The Yankees and
Englishmen hunted him whenever they could, for

they had a curiosity to see what a live demon wa^
like. You may imagine what a life it was for the

poor merman. He was almost worn out when
The Sea-nymph weighed anchor and set sail for

Sicily. He followed her, of course; for he was
more possessed than ever.

And yet away down at the bottom of his heart
he had misgivings* When day after day went on

and the nymph stood still in the same place, he
could not help thinking to himself, “ What if it

should be a wooden image, after all 1”
But when this thought came into his head he
drove it away, and called himself all the names that

ever were for daring to entertain such a notion

about his goddess. Was she not constant? Did
she not always hold out her vase toward him ?
He didn’t or wouldn’t think, the poor silly mer­

man, that it was because he always swam right be­
fore her and she couldn't hold it any other way.

Not far from the Straits of Gibraltar the mer­