Lord Dolphin Part 8

The roar of the great city again filled my ears, dust troubled my eyes whenever I raised my head. I was faint, weary, and wretched. I could feel that I had grown lighter from loss of flesh, because of the unnatural life that I was leading.

How I wished I might escape! That some great and powerful Friend would help me. But I was only a fish, had only fins and tail to aid me, that I knew of, and those were at present of but very little use.

At length the boat was reached. There was some confusion, as they were "short of hands," which it appears meant they had not as many men at the dock as were wanted. But the tank was got on board, and men ran for the railing that was to be put around the edge.

Their backs were turned for an instant. Oh! Oh! could I give a mighty lurch, bound over the deck-rail, and be free? No waiting this time! I slashed upward in a tremendous "heave-to." Whack! I struck the rail, wriggled quick as lightning over the side, and hurrah and hurrah! I was swimming the wide, free river!

Not my own sea. No, there must be first the shortest cut I could find into the ocean and salt water, then there would be many days of sweet, wholesome journeying and paddling before home grounds could be reached, but reached they would be all in good time.

Folks say that if Madame Puss, that land-creature who does not love the water overwell, is carried miles from her home in the dark, she will find the way back again. And I felt sure that, once out into the harbor, I could strike a bee-line for a far opposite sh.o.r.e, cut through the narrows at Gibraltar, and enter like a returning monarch on my own proud domain, the fair blue Mediterranean Sea. Oh, hurrah again!

I heard a loud and echoing shout as my great body splashed into the water, caught the sound of rushing feet, and saw heavy ropes with strange loops at the ends, that were flung overboard in hopes to entangle me, and bring back their great fancy fish into that tank again.

Oh, no, Mister Sailorman, and Mister Deckhand. No, no! I had seen and felt quite enough of being on land, thank you, to last me all the rest of my life. And as the Dolphin family is very long lived, I hope that many years of sweet, delicious freedom, and enjoyment of my native element, are yet before me.

And if there was a great king of the Dolphins, as there must be a great Friend of the Folks, that guides our affairs, I would send him a letter a yard long, full of thanks for my freedom. It may be there is such a king, but real knowledge of such things is way beyond me.

I saw strange craft as I boomed along, always giving them a wide berth.

And such fishes! Did you ever see an angel-fish? Don't ever wish to if you haven't. It ought to be called evil spirit fish. In appearance it is one of the quaintest, ugliest creatures that swims the sea. Some Folks call it monk-fish. It is all of four feet long, has fierce, goggly eyes, and a round, wicked-looking head, that seems nearly separated from the rest of its thick body by a thin, short neck. Then such a vicious-looking tail! Oh, you had better keep clear of an angel-fish.

A toad-fish looked like an enormous, swimming toad. Bless me! I caught sight of a shark as I came well out into the ocean. He was more than twenty feet long. Think of that! But they are thirty feet sometimes. His great, fleshy, powerful tail takes him along as he looks from side to side for his prey. I saw his pointed nose and his rows of awful teeth, one over another.

There are sharks that can bite a man in halves. Once in awhile we see a shark in our Mediterranean, but they do not abound there. Yet now and then Mister Diver-man has had to rush for his life to reach the friendly ladder when the disturbance under water to right and left has warned him that one of these sea-monsters was approaching. Oh, they are dreadful creatures, and greedy, too. They will follow vessels for miles and miles, expecting that cast-off food will be thrown into the sea, as it often is. Their instinct tells them that food is likely to drop from vessels, and it does, indeed.

I also saw a sea-snipe, or trumpet-fish, but, oho, without a tooth! He made me think of a scorpion that has a poisonous, dangerous tail.

I came upon a funny sight while still in the Atlantic Ocean. A whole school of whales went rushing along in a body, and pretty soon I saw what it meant. Then it was more funny for me than for the poor whales.

Some whalers, men who go out in vessels to catch these enormous fishes for their flesh, their oil, and their bones, were banging great heavy pieces of tin of iron against stones, so frightening the whales that they crowded in a body into a little creek or inlet.

This was just what the whalers wanted them to do. Because, once in the narrow place, so many of them could not escape, and it became easy to capture them. Men-Folks do really know a very great deal. It makes me afraid of them.

An urchin-fish would make you laugh. Some call it a sea-hedgehog. It looks as if covered all over with great thorns, and a baby sea-urchin looks as if it was all ready to burst, it is so thick and round.

A sunfish was an odd piece. It had round eyes, and the queer little fins just back of its neck looked like shoulder-capes. It was so fat it had to swim with a waddle.

The herring I so much like for food are to be found in nearly all waters, and abundant, sweet, and inviting. Famous ramblers they are, going in great parties of thousands in number, through wide tracts of ocean and sea. I have found that a great deal of "money," whatever that may be, is made by Folks out of the herring fisheries, along the Atlantic seacoast.

And let me whisper: Do you like sardines? Well, some Folks say that herring do not live in the Mediterranean Sea, that ancient Folks knew nothing about them, but that what we know as herring are really sardines. These are caught in great numbers, pickled in some way, then soaked in oil, are put in little tin boxes, tightly sealed, and sent all over the world.

But let me whisper again, and this makes Lord Dolphin smile; it may make you laugh. But honestly, they _say_ that immense numbers of little herring, or alewives, a little fish very much like a herring, are caught on western sh.o.r.es of the Atlantic, pickled, packed in oil, and sold for sardines.

Isn't it all very funny? If I eat sardines and call them herring, and folks eat herring and call them sardines, why are we not square? But as I want to be very honest in all I say, it may be that in speaking of the herring I so much prefer, I ought to say they are found oftenest at the far western part of the Mediterranean, where the ancient Folk were not so likely to explore.

After I had sailed for days, gliding like a streak through the deep, untroubled water, I came again to the Strait of Gibraltar.

Oh, with what a thrill of delight I saw this time, in these far happier days than when last I pa.s.sed through it, this narrow outlet from ocean to sea. I went through first in a tank, I returned with the broad ocean for my glorious bed.

I know now that the strait was named for the enormous Rock of Gibraltar, and that it once was called the Strait of Hercules.

Now "Hercules" is another "myth" you will study about in those old Greek fables called "mythology." He was one of the G.o.ds, and famed for his tremendous strength. The story goes, that, coming up to a monstrous rock in the Atlantic Ocean that entirely separated it from the Mediterranean Sea, Hercules, wishing to pa.s.s through from ocean to sea, rent the great rock into two parts, so making a pa.s.sage through. And this was how the narrow outlet came to be called the Strait of Hercules.

Now, for many years the pa.s.sage has been called the Strait of Gibraltar.

But the two great rocks at the entrance of the strait are called "The Pillars of Hercules."

Well, through the dividing narrows I darted, and was home again!

And I am thankful to know three great and precious words that Folks have taught me: Friends! Liberty! Home! Are there any better words than these? Perhaps so. But I have not learned them. Yet Folks know so much more than a fish, even a lordly one, can understand, that it is quite likely they may be acquainted with words having a grander meaning than these.

But I, Lord Dolphin, traveller and story-teller, want to repeat, that I am very, very grateful to any One I ought to thank, that I find myself among friends again, free, and in my own glorious home, the bright blue Midland Sea.

THE END.