The mermaid attendants assisted the child to dress herself in one of the prettiest robes, which she found to be quite dry and fitted her comfortably.

Then the sea-maids brushed and dressed her hair, and tied it with ribbons of cherry-red seaweed.

Finally they placed around her neck a string of pearls that would have been priceless upon the earth, and now the little girl announced she was ready for supper and had a good appetite.
Cap'n Bill had been given a similar room near Trot, but the old sailor refused to change his clothes for any others offered him, for which reason he was ready for supper long before his comrade.

"What bothers me, mate," he said to the little girl as the y swam toward the great banquet hall where Queen Aquareine awaited them, "is why ain't we crushed by the pressin' of the water agin us, bein' as we're down here in the deep sea." "How's that, Cap'n?
Why should we be crushed ?" she asked.
"Why, ev'r'body knows that the deeper you go in the sea, the more the water presses agin you," he explained.

"Even the divers in their steel jackets can't stand it very deep down.