The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-11-08
The First Journey from One Garden to
Another.

color, with lines of garnet red in bands along It's arms. Doris. however, attempted to place It In her hair, 1t was so pretty. Loi ht her touch the creature deliberately com mitted suicide by separating its fine arms ana ana body into small pieces, each of which trleo to burrow in the muddy floor, With sigh Doris went on, and made no further .aliempts to touch anything "What's the use she exclaimed. '"rhe moment you ,oueh anything 1t either turns Inside out, c.oses up tight bites you or breaks into pieces It Is so queer"
 Look where you are going" cried the mermaid suddenly, as Doris was stepping on what she thought was n moss grown rock The rock immediately rose and swan lazily away, when Doris saw that 1t was huge fish, nearly five feet long. of eurious mottled green, brown and yellow colors, and no particualr shape whatever. Why, 1t seemed to be all fins and tassels, us head was hidden in mosslike hlaments ana It's body had long streamers growing on It, exactly like the grasses around.
 No wonder did not know it from the weeds, she exclaimed; whatever is it?,
 It Is an angler fish, ," explained the guide i to the sea. There are lots of them here iheey Just hide until choice morsel comes swimming over and then they wave one of their tasses at It and snap it up."
 'oh, how mean of them! cried Doris. ''l came near being choice morse myself, Look! there's an odd creature-ohl I'm 'fraid.'
 Indeed, at this moment they had come to great pile of mud .nd sand. like hill. ana from hole in the side was slowly issu- Ing monstrous batlike creature
 The mermaid seized Doris and pulled her down Into clump of water cabbage. where they watched In terror the monstrous crea- ture.
 It's sea devil, or giant skate" whis- pered the mermaid; they are wicked crea- lures with a whole barrel of teeth in their jaws. Keep down"
 The sea devil came slowly out. It was of a brown mottled color and at least twenty hVe rect across; pair of vast winglike fiaps on elther side waved up and down slowly. As me creature passed like cloud above DOTS head she saw It's great cruel mouth wiue open. The teeth were each as big as a saucer hattened and lay over each other ike the shingles on house. Doris sbud- dered when, an unfortunate fish happening 10 rise rom nearby thicket, the great pat-nsh snapped It up with a clash like A pile or stones falling oyer each other.
 At length, the sea devil having gone the Mermaid rose and conducted Doris iowa rd level spot, where the blue and green clay was covered by thick white sand, like l snow. Let's sit here for a while n she suggested, before going to the grottoes: we can have few mouthfuls, too {"
 Doris was getting hungry, and was glad to have some oysters and clans. even if they were raw; but when the Mermaid of. fered her some bright red sea weed, looking like thin slices of rubber, she declined. It felt as tough and elastic as rubber. too.
 Why, it's dulce, and as good as can be. declared the Mermaid. q live on It. Here Is something deaicious,p and she held out n small shell, with an oyster-like creature In it. The animal was of a deep red color. but when Doris tasted 1t it was very nice
 Well, it's dangerous here-we must real ly go on," said the Mermaid hastily dodg. Ing behind sea fan. Don't fall into that hole and watch out for those dogfish." Her warning came, however, just as a school of pretty scarlet fishes darted near They commenced playing around Doris head. but wer so small and so like flock of birds | that she was not frightened at all She tried to catch one. but eouldn't-they were like streaks of red light. Suddenly a curious slabsded fish of a silver green color ap- l peared, and the red fishes all at once at tackled it playfully, pushing It around and pumping 1t. That's a moonfish," whispered the Mermaid Its such silly sort of crea-