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.