added,
hastily, "don't ask me to tell you everything now because these Dolphins
are a little skittish, and I've got to keep my mind on them or we'll be
upset."

Here one of the Dolphins, to show how skittish he could be when he
tried, stood erect on his tail, and then took a header deep down into
the water, and in a moment Jimmieboy found himself clinging in alarm to
the Merboy's arm.

"Don't do that!" cried the Merboy, "or you'll surely upset us."

"I was afraid he'd drag us under," panted Jimmieboy, releasing his hold.

"Drag us under?" repeated the Merboy. "Why, my dear boy, we are under.
We've been driving under water for ten minutes now. In ten more we shall
be on the ocean's bottom."

Jimmieboy pressed his lips as tightly together as he possibly could. If,
as the Merboy had said, he was under water and headed directly for the
bottom of the sea, he was not going to run any risks by opening his
mouth and getting it full of sea-water, which he knew from experience
was not the pleasantest-tasting stuff in the world. He was a cautious
boy too, Jimmieboy was, and he had a distinct recollection of having
heard his father warn a friend of his at the sea-shore one summer's day
not to open his mouth too widely when he was in bathing, for fear he
might take in the ocean at a gulp, which would be a dreadful thing to
do.

"Don't make such fearful faces," said the Merboy, noticing Jimmieboy's
efforts to squeeze his two lips into one. "You'll frighten the whales."

"Mwime mfwaid mgetting mwater in m' mouf," mumbled Jimmieboy.

"Excuse me," said the Merboy, looking at him as if he thought he was
crazy. "I never studied that language, and I don't know what you are
trying to say; open your mouth and speak English."

"Mwime mfwaid," mumbled Jimmieboy again, meaning to say "I'm afraid."

"Whoa!" cried the Merboy, reining in his Dolphins. "Now look here,
Jamesboy," he added, severely, as the carriage came to a stop, "I won't
take you any further if you don't stop that. My relatives down here have
been very anxious to meet you, because I've written to them several
times telling them all about you; but I can tell you just one thing. If
you are going to make faces like that, and talk with your lips tight
closed and your voice way down in your boots, not to mention the
horrible language you are using, they won't have anything to do with
you, and they'll think I got you out of a circus instead of at your
home. What's come over