Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1877-05-18

AZ iust tne htHe usn Hpleu lOnB uaIk
streak away down, and made his way toward
it, but il was neither fish nor cable; II was
the gunwalo Of sunkcn vessel, which above
and below the deck was broken in two by the
force Of the sea. Tho little fish swan into
the cabin, where the people who persisted
when the vessel sank we're all washed away,
except two; young woman lay there
stretched out, with her little child in her arms.
They seemed to be sleeping The little fish
was quito frightened, for it did not know
that they never again could waken. Sea-
weed hung like network of foliage over
the gunwale above the two beautiful bodies
Of mother and babe 1t was so quiet, so
solitary the little fish scanpered away as
fast as it could, out where the water was
bright and clear, and there were fishes to see.
1t had not gone far before it met u whale
fearfully big.
"Don't swallow me !" cried the little fish
al am not even to be tasted, am SO small
and it is great comfort to me to lve."
"What are you doing away down here,
where your kind never come ?" asked the
whale.
So then the little fish told about the as
tonishingly long eel, or whatever the thing
was, that had sunk down from above and
produced such panic amongst all the other
creatures in the sea.
"Ho, no !" said the whale, and he drew in
such rush of water that he was ready to
make prodigious spout when he came to
the surface for breath. "Ho, no so that
was the thing that tickled me on the back
when l was turning round. | thought it was
a ships mast, that could break up into
clothes.pius. But it was not here that it
was; no, good deal farther out lies the
thing. I'll go with you and look for it, for
| have nothing else to do" and so it swan
off, and the little fish behind it, not too near,
because there was tearing stream, as it
we're, in the wake of the whale.
They met shark and an old saw-6sh /;
they, too, had heard of the famous sea eel, so
long and so thin they had not seen it, but
now they would
an go with you" said the shark, who
was on the same road "if the great sea-ser
pent is no thicker than cable, then l can
bite through it in one bite" and he opened
his mouth and showed his six rows Of teeth
al can bite dents in a ships anchor, and
certainly can bite off the shank"
"There it is !" said the great whale; 81
see him." He thought he saw better than
the others. "Sec how it rises, how it bends
and bows and curves -
But it was not the sea.serpent, but an ex.
traordinarily great eel ever SO many ellis
long, that drew near
"Why, have seen him before !" said the
saw-fish. "lle never has made hullabaloo
in the sea or frightened any big fish out of
his wits" And so they talked to him of the
new eel and asked him if he would 20 with
them or their voyage of discovery.
"If that eel is longer than am" said the
sea-eel, "there will be somthing dsagreeablo
happening"
SAY, that there WILL" said the others
'tthere are enough Of US not to tolerate him ~
and so they shot ahead. But then there
came right in their way a great monster, big
ger than all Of them put together; it looked
like floating island, that could not stop it.
self. 1t was a venerable whale. Its head
was grown over with sea-weed, its back COW
cred with barnaces, and such innumerablc
oysters and musseIs, that its black skin was
altogether whitened.
"Come with us, old fellow ~ said they.
"lere is new fish, come and we won't stand
it,"
Il would rather lie where l am lying, y
said the whale. "leavc me alone leave
me alone. o ah, D ah | suffer from a
dreadful disease My only relief is to get
up toward the surface and get my back up
higher; then the great sea.fowl can come
and pick at me. That feels 90 good only
when they do not drive their beaks in too
far; sometimes they go in too deep, quite
into my blubber. You can see now how a
complete skeleton of fowl is fixed iu my
back she struck her claws in too deep. and
could not get them ont when went down to
the bottom. Aud bow the little fishes have
picked at her. See how she looks, and how
| look. | am all diseased! !"
THAT is all imagination !" said the shark.
81 am never sick. No fish is ever sick"
"Pardon me-" said the whale. The eel
suffers from headache, the carp has the small
pox, and we all have intestinal worms"
"Nonsense p said the shark, and refused
to hear any further, and the others would also
rather not they had something else to at.
tend to.
At last they came to the place where the
telegraph cable lay. 1t has a pretty long
bed on the floor OF the sea from Europe to
America, over sand-banks and sea.mud,
rocky ground and weedy places, entire forests
OF coral. The currents down there, too,
change, whirlpOols eddy, aud fishes swarm in
greater masses than the countless locks Of
birds that men see when birds of passage
take their flight. There is stir, a splash
there, humming and rushing still haunts a
little the great empty conch.sheIls when we
hold them to our ears.
"There lies the fellow !" cried all the great
fishes and the little one with them. They
saw the cable, tEa beginning and end ofwhich
vanished beyond the reach of their eyes.
Sponges and polyps swayed from the ground,