THE SEA-SERPENT. 
3 
the ladies, all pale, are fainting and screaming, and 
tearing their hair ; your sister sits mute in an 
utter despair; fair Fanny is lying quite cold on 
the rock, and Mary, so sudden and dreadful the 
shock, has gone off in hysterics, while Alice the 
g£y, half frightened to death, is running away. 
ii. 
A moment, — he’s gone ! Deep, deep ’neath 
the wave, he will dine on you safe in his pearl- 
spangled cave, while the lady you loved, and 
who sat by your side, has plunged from the rock 
and sunk ’neath the tide. 
I told you, dear reader, how shocking ’t would 
be, but that’s nothing to what you will by and by 
see. I don’t like to be horrid, but, somehow or 
other, I’m convinced that this serpent is more 
than half-brother to a person whom I for the 
world would not mention, though I own in the 
last line that was my intention ; yet perhaps he is 
not, but still I believe that the serpent who hum¬ 
bugged our good mother Eve was at least sec- 
