ve yourself. I've got the hiccoughs.'
'Nay, nay!' said the Mariner. 'Not so, but far otherwise. Take me to my
natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and I'll think about it.'
And he began to dance more than ever.
'You had better take him home,' said the 'Stute Fish to the Whale. 'I
ought to have warned you that he is a man of
infinite-resource-and-sagacity.'
[Illustration: HERE is the Whale looking for the little 'Stute Fish, who
is hiding under the Door-sills of the Equator. The little 'Stute Fish's
name was Pingle. He is hiding among the roots of the big seaweed that
grows in front of the Doors of the Equator. I have drawn the Doors of
the Equator. They are shut. They are always kept shut, because a door
ought always to be kept shut. The ropy-thing right across is the Equator
itself; and the things that look like rocks are the two giants Moar and
Koar, that keep the Equator in order. They drew the shadow-pictures on
the doors of the Equator, and they carved all those twisty fishes under
the Doors. The beaky-fish are called beaked Dolphins, and the other fish
with the queer heads are called Hammer-headed Sharks. The Whale never
found the little 'Stute Fish till he got over his temper, and then they
became good friends again.]
So the Whale swam and swam and swam, with both flippers and his
tail, as hard as he could for the hiccoughs; and at last he saw the
Mariner's natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and he rushed
half-way up the beach, and opened his mouth wide and wide and wide, and
said, 'Change here for Winchester, Ashuelot, Nashua, Keene, and stations
on the _Fitch_burg Road;' and just as he said 'Fitch' the Mariner walked
out of his mouth. But while the Whale had been swimming, the Mariner,
who was indeed a person of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, had taken his
jack-knife and cut up the raft into a little square grating all running
criss-cross, and he had tied it firm with his suspenders (_now_ you know
why you were not to forget the suspenders!), and he dragged that grating
good and tight into the Whale's throat, and there it stuck! Then he
recited the following _Sloka_, which, as you have not heard it, I will
now proceed to relate--
By means of a grating
I have stopped your ating.
For the Mariner he was also an Hi-ber-ni-an. And he stepped out on the
shingle, and went home to his mother, who had given him leave to trail
his toes in the water; and he married and liv
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