"You ain't thinkin' o' doin' such a fool thing, are you ?" "'Course I am," declared the little girl.

"We don't get such inv'tations every day, Cap'n, and if I don't go now I may never find out how the mermaids live." "I don't care how they live, myself," said Cap'n Bill.

"I jes' want 'em to let ME live." "There's no danger," insisted Trot.
"I do' know 'bout that.

That's what all the other folks said when they dove after the mermaids an' got drownded." "Who ?" asked the girl.
"I don't know who, but I've heard tell--" "You've heard that no one ever saw a mermaid and lived," said Trot.
"To tell the tale," he added, nodding.

"An' if we dives down like they says, we won't live ourselves." All the mermaids laughed at this, and the brown-haired one said, "Well, if you are afraid, don't come.