Mexico weekly ledger., 1876-11-02
UNDER THE SEA.
by SUSAN

I
They were scrambling down the
rocks, q gay, chattering procession
pretty Kate with her Captain; DIR. Gray
supporting his invalid wife; Helen, Is
abel, Tom, and their midshipman cous-
in; last of all, Esther Vane-alone. 1t
seemed to her morbid fancy right that
it should be so. Henceforth she must
be alone-always. v
The little guide trotted on in advance
his round, ~"10-year-old face wearing
the vacant look so strangely common
to that part of the Maine coast, with
its glorious scenery. There the ocean
is considered simply a vast depot of
behring's and "porgy OIL" and the
mountains as untoward obstacles in the
way of a primitive husbandry. "Blast
'em, I wish they was fat" the natives
say, as their plows encounter the bowl
ders at the base; and, if they look aloft
at all, itis,to calculate the perches of
"medder-land" which might be made to
occupy the am area, if the heights were
out of the way.
Our party felt on the eve of great
! things. Having arrived only the day
j before, Mount Newport with its Won
: derful reach of sapphire sea, the bluffs,
the lakes in their settings of dark-blue
hill, were still to them the images of
things not seen. This, their first excur
sion, they had dedicated to the IS Grot-
to-" or "Devil's Oven," as the coast
people term it; a sort of submarine
cave, unveiled and accessible at low
tide only. and q great wonder in its
way. The path grew sleeper. Care
fully they followed its windings, step
by step, SUI e-footed Kate accepting the
help she didn't need, for that pleasure
in being guided and watched. And now
the little guide pauses, and with a freck-
led fore-6nger points round a projec-
ton of rock. All crowd to the spot.
All! there it is-the cave of the mer-
maids!
A shrek of mingled surprise and en-
chantment burst from the party at the
sight. Beneath the l~ow-browed arch
the rocky floor rose, terrace above ter
race, till in its highest recess it met the
roof above. A floor for the nereids to
dance upon; a floor of pink coralline,
cleaning here and there through pools
of emerald water left by the ~retreating
tide. And each of these tiny lakelets
seemed Drumming with foWers-thei
flowers of ocean-green whorls, like
chestnut-burs; anemones with their
dahlia bloom; brown and rosy NOSES,
among whose tendrils bright fish darted
and played and snails of vivid orange
color clustered broad leaves OF brilliant
dye swaying and u~ndulating with the
motion of the pool-minute specks of
life flashing veryirrideseent hue earth
ly garden was never so gorgeous. The
rocky shelves were dimpled with hol-
lows-sofuy, exquisitely curved. No
fancy of the old classic days seemed too
fantastic or too fair for the spot. The
imagination i~nstinCtively kind1ed into
pictures, and saw the sea-nymphs sport
ing in the foam; bold tritons winding
their shells; mermaids playing at hide
and-seek; mikes and knocking water
sprites peeping from the basins-all
dream-land and wonderland opening,
and the common earth put aside and far
away.
With cries of delight the party made
their way down, and scattered through
the cave. There was room for an army.
1t was hard to realize that with the re-
turning tide the space must fill, the gate
way close, and leave no resting-place
for human foot.