150 LOVE AND SEA SICKNESS. 



" By all the red petticoats and check aprons between Dingle and 

 Tralee/' cried Dick, jumping up in amazement, " I'd as soon eat 

 myself, my jewel ! Is it I eat you, my pet ? Now ^twas some ugly 

 looking thief of a fish put that notion in your own pretty head, with 

 the nice green hair down upon it, that is so cleanly combed out this 

 morning !" 



" Man," said the Merrow, " what will you do with me, if you 

 won*t eat me V^ 



Dick's thoughts were running on a wife : he saw at the first 

 glimpse that she was handsome ; but since she spoke, and spoke 

 too like any real woman, he was fairly in love with her. 'Twas the 

 neat way she called him man, that settled the matter entirely. 



" Fish," says Dick, trying to speak to her after her own short 

 fashion, "fish," says he, "here's my word, fresh and fasting, for 

 you this blessed morning, that I'll make you mistress Fitzgerald 

 before all the world, and that's what I'll do." ^ 



" Never say the word twice," says she, " I'm ready and willing to 

 be yours Mister Fitzgerald, but stop if you please, till I twist up 

 my hair." 



It was some time before she had settled it entirely to her liking; 

 for she guessed, I suppose, that she was going among strangers, 

 where she would be looked at ; when that was done, the Merrow 

 put the comb in her pocket, and then bent down her head and 

 whispered some words to the water that was close at the foot of the 

 rock. 



Dick saw the murmur of the words upon the top of the sea, go- 

 ing towards the wide ocean, just like a breath of wind rippling along, 

 and says he, in the greatest wonder, " is it speaking, you are, my 

 darling, to the salt water?" 



" It's nothing else,'' says she, quite carelessly, " I'm just sending 

 word home to my father, not to be waiting breakfast for me; just 

 to keep him from being uneasy in his mind." 



"And who is your father, my duck ?" says Dick. 



"What!" said the Merrow, "did you never hear of my father ? 

 he is the King of the Waves, to be sure I" 



"And yourself then, is a real King's daughter?" said Dick, open- 

 ing his two eyes to take a full and true survey of his wife that was 

 to be. 



" Oh, I'm nothing else but a made man with you ; and a King 

 your father ; — to be sure he has all the money that's down in the 

 bottom of the sea ! " 



" Money, what's money ? " repeated the Merrow. 



" 'Tis no bad thing to have when one wants it," replied Dick, 



