To me, one's just as strange as t'other."
"You never saw the mermaid yoursel," interposed Margaret gently.
But "love me, love my dog," was Will Wilson's motto, only his
version was, "Believe me, believe Jack Harris"; and the remark was
not so soothing to him as it was intended to have been.
"It's the Exocetus; one of the Malacopterygii Abdominales," said
Job, much interested.
"Ay, there you go! you're one o' them folks as never knows beasts
unless they're called out o' their names. Put 'em in Sunday
clothes, and you know 'em, but in their work-a-day English you never
know nought about 'em. I've met wi' many o' your kidney; and if I'd
ha' known it, I'd ha' christened poor Jack's mermaid wi' some grand
gibberish of a name. Mermaidicus Jack Harrisensis; that's just like
their new-fangled words. D'ye believe there's such a thing as the
Mermaidicus, master?" asked Will, enjoying his own joke uncommonly,
as most people do.
"Not I! tell me about the"--
"Well!" said Will, pleased at having excited the old gentleman's
faith and credit at last, "it were on this last voyage, about a
day's sail from Madeira, that one of our men"--
"Not Jack Harris, I hope," murmured Job.
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