yed bewildering the wits of the people who were
so much wiser than they.

"Well, I think it is much nicer to be buried under grass and flowers
when our souls have flown away to heaven," said Nelly, beginning to be
glad she was not a "truly" mermaid.

"What is heaven?" asked Silver-tail, stupidly.

"You would not understand if I tried to tell you. I can only say it is a
lovely place where we go when we die, and the angels don't puzzle over
us at all, but love us and are glad to see us come," said Nelly,
soberly.

Both little maids stared at her with their green eyes as if they wanted
to understand, but gave it up, and with a whisk of their shining tails
darted away, calling to her,--

"Come and play with the crabs; it's great fun."

Nelly was rather afraid of crabs, they nipped her toes so when she went
among them; but having no feet now, she felt braver, and was soon having
a gay time chasing them over the rocks, and laughing to see them go
scrambling sidewise into their holes. The green lobsters amused her very
much by the queer way they hitched along, with their great claws ready
to grasp and hold whatever they wanted. It was funny to see them wipe
their bulging eyes with their feelers and roll them about on all sides.
The hermit crabs in their shells were curious, and the great snails
popping out their horns; the sea-spiders were very ugly, and she shook
with fear when the horrible Octopus went by, with his eight long arms
waving about like snakes and his hooked beak snapping.

"Show me something pretty," she begged; "I don't like these ugly things.
Haven't you any flowers or birds or animals here to play with?"

"Oh yes, here are our sea anemones, yellow, red, and white, all blooming
in their beds; and these lovely plants of every color which you call
weeds. Then there are the coral trees, far away, which we will show you
some day, and the sponges on the rocks, and many other curious things,"
answered Goldfin, leading Nelly up and down to see the only flowers they
had. Then Silver-tail said,--

"She will like the nautilus boats and the flying fish, and a ride on the
dolphins and whales. Come and let her see that we have birds and animals
as well as she."

Up they went; and when Nelly saw the lovely red and blue creatures like
a fleet of fairy boats floating over the waves, she clapped her hands
and cried,--

"We have nothing so beautiful on the land! How delicate and fair they
are! Won't the wind tear