him.

"Who are you?" asked Trot, who was very curious and much surprised.

"I'm Cap'n Joe," was the reply. "Cap'n Joe Weedles, formerly o' the
brig 'Gladsome' an' now a slave o' Zog at the bottom o' the sea."

"J--J--Joe Wee-Weedles!" gasped Cap'n Bill, amazed. "Joe Weedles o'
the 'Gladsome'! Why, dash my eyes, mate, you must be my brother!"

"Are YOU Bill Weedles?" asked the other. And then he added, "But no,
you can't be. Bill wasn't no mermaid. He were a human critter like
myself."

"That's what I am," said Cap'n Bill hastily. "I'm a human critter,
too. I've jes' borrered this fish tail to swim with while I'm
visitin' the mermaids."

"Well, well," said Cap'n Joe in astonishment. "Who'd o' thought it!
An' who'd ever o' thought as I'd find my long-lost brother in Zog's
enchanted castle full fifty fathoms deep down in the wet, wet
water!"

"Why, as fer that," replied Cap'n Bill, "it's YOU as is the
long-lost brother, not me. You an' your ship disappeared many a year
ago, an' ain't never been heard of since, while, as you see, I'm
livin' on earth yet."

"You don't look it to all appearances," remarked Cap'n Joe in a
reflective tone of voice. "But I'll agree it's many a year since I
saw the top o' the water, an' I'm not expectin' to ever tramp on dry
land again."

"Are you dead, or drownded, or what?" asked Cap'n Bill.

"Neither one nor t'other," was the answer. "But Zog gave me gills
so's I could live in the water like fishes do, an' if I got on land
I couldn't breathe air any more'n a fish out o' water can. So I
guess as long as I live, I'll hev to stay down here."

"Do you like it?" asked Trot.

"Oh, I don't objec' much," said Cap'n Joe. "There ain't much
excitement here, fer we don't catch a flock o' mermaids ev'ry day,
but the work is easy an' the rations fair. I might o' been worse
off, you know, for when my brig was wrecked, I'd 'a' gone to Davy
Jones's Locker if Zog hadn't happened to find me an' made me a
fish."

"You don't look as much like a fish as Cap'n Bill does," observed
Trot.

"P'raps not," said Cap'n Joe, "but I notice Bill ain't got any gills
an' breathes like you an' the mermaids does. When he gets back to
land, he'll have his two legs again an' live in comfort breathin'
air."

"I won't have two legs," asserted Cap'n Bill, "for when I'm on earth
I'm fitted with one wooden leg, jes' the same as you are, Joe."

"Oh, I hadn't heard o' that, Bill, but I'm not surprised," replied
Bro