IN THE TOADFISH'S SHOE 23 



"In the name of Davy Jones ! " I yelled, flinging 

 line and shoe and thing (whatever it might be) far 

 behind me, "I've caught the Old Man of the Sea 

 with his shoe on ! " And, scrambling to my feet, I 

 hurried across the wharf to see if it really were a fish 

 that now lay flapping close beside the shoe. 



It was really a fish ; but it was also a hobgoblin, 

 nightmare, and ooze-croaker! — if you know what 

 that is ! 



I had never seen a live toadfish before, and it is 

 small wonder that I sighed with relief to see that he 

 had unhooked himself; for he looked not only un- 

 canny, but also dangerous! He was slimy all over, 

 with a tremendous head and a more tremendous 

 mouth (if that could be), with jaws studded on the 

 inside with rows of sharp teetb, and fringed on the 

 outside with folds of loose skin and tentacles. Great 

 glaring eyes stared at me, with ragged bits of skin 

 hanging in a ring about them. 



Ugly? Oh, worse than ugly? Two thirds of the 

 monster was head; the rest, a weak, shapeless^ slimy 

 something with fins and tail, giving the creature the 

 appearance of one whose brain had grown at the 

 expense of the rest of his body, making him only a 

 kind of living head. 



I looked at him. He looked at me, and croaked. 



"I don't understand you," said I, and he croaked 

 again. "But you are alive," said I; "and God made 

 you, and therefore you ought not to look so ugly to 



