The Sea Fairies

Nobody said Cap'n Bill solemnly ever sawr a mermaid an' lived to tell the tale. Why not? asked Trot looking earnestly up into the old sailor's face. They were seated on a bench built around a giant acacia tree that grew just at the edge of the bluff. Below them rolled the blue waves of the great Pacific. A little way behind them was the house a neat frame cottage painted white and surrounded by huge eucalyptus and pepper trees. Still farther behind that - a quarter of a mile distant but built upon a bend of the coast - was the village overlooking a pretty bay.