f she were having a joke all to herself, but she stifled
it immediately.

"There is another thing, Captain Toughyarn," said her majesty, "that
perhaps you may not be aware of. Marriages between your race and ours
are extremely rare. When they occur some sacrifice is always expected on
the part of the gentleman, just by way of proving his love," and she
glanced at my legs as she spoke. I did not quite understand her meaning.

"Sacrifice--sacrifice," I said to myself. "Ah! yes," said I, aloud;
"your majesty does not wish that your daughter should leave her house
and visit my country. Is it not so?"

"That is part of the conditions, but not all," said her majesty.

"And what else might your majesty be pleased to exact from me?" I asked.

"Well," she said, with a smile and a second glance at my legs, "we
should like you--we expect you to--to--to become in fact, like one of
us--to conform----"

"Oh, quite so," I said, without as yet catching her meaning thoroughly;
"to conform--yes--certainly--to all the customs of the country I have
adopted."

"To _all_ of them, mind?"

"Yes."

"Then you consent to this trifling sacrifice. You have no objection
to--to be operated upon?"

"Operated upon!" I cried in astonishment. "What?--How?--I don't quite
catch your majesty's meaning."

"Well, Captain Toughyarn," said her majesty, "if I _must_ be more
explicit, the fact is, that legs are out of fashion here, only tails are
worn in this country. If you really wish to marry our daughter, you must
submit to an operation."

"W-h-e-w!" whistled I, the real nature of the sacrifice dawning upon me
for the first time. "So that is your meaning!"

"Precisely. Do you refuse?"

Now, I always prided myself particularly on my legs. In my youth they
were the admiration of the sex; even now they are far from contemptible,
and to give them in exchange for a tail was of all things the furthest
from my thoughts. I did not know what to answer.

At length I asked, "And this operation--how is it performed, your
majesty?"

"Oh, it is simple enough," was the reply. "A surgeon is called, who
amputates the lower extremities; a dolphin or other large fish is
procured, which, after being killed, is cut in half, and the tail half
of the fish is bound to that part of your body still suffering from the
operation, until the parts unite, and the transformation is complete."

"I am infinitely obliged to your majesty," said I, "but I hope you will
par