HURRAH!
Then the day came when I was again made to swim into that despised
little tank. It was put on to a dray as before, and I was given my
second ride on land. May it forever be my last!
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 shore, 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 shores 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 passed 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 gods, 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 pass through from ocean to sea, rent the great
rock into two parts, so making a passage through. And this was how the
narrow outlet came to be called the Strait of Hercules.
Now, for many years the passage 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.