Chapter 2

The next morning found Mary Louise and the Mermaid Princess waiting anxiously at the station for the Iceberg Express. On the platform they recognized among the passengers their little friend, the Star Fish. In a few minutes the express thundered into the station. "Watch your step!" yelled the Polar Bear Porter as he helped Mary Louise and the Princess on board. Then with a rush and a roar the Iceberg Express started on its journey for the Mountains of the Sea!

The Wreck

Mary Louise and the Mermaid Princess settled themselves back comfortably in their seats and looked about them. The Iceberg Express certainly had every convenience. Of course almost everything was made of ice. But, then, so is most everything in a Pullman car made of steel. There was really very little difference except that the ice was much prettier, it was so clear and white, and the moss cushions that covered the seats were soft and springy. The crystal chandeliers that hung from the ceiling were resplendent with little twinkling lights, and the curtains at the ice-paned windows were made of the thinnest spun ice threads. Even the little drinking cups that were packed in a column, one within the other, at the ice water tank, were made of thin ice.

"I don't feel the least bit cold," said Mary Louise, turning with a laugh to her mermaid friend. "Do you?"

"Not the least bit," she replied.

"It's so different, though, from the first train we were on," continued Mary Louise. "It isn't anything like it really. Why, the first train was only an ordinary iceberg, don't you remember?"

"That's because we never went inside," replied the mermaid. "We didn't have the opportunity, the explosion came so soon."

"That's so," agreed Mary Louise. "The only think I distinctly remember is the Polar Bear porter calling out to be careful, and then the awful explosion. After that we were in the water and there was nothing around us but cracked ice."

"Dining car in the rear," announced the Polar Bear porter, walking down the isle with a menu card held gracefully in his paw. "Last call for the dining car!"

"Goodness!" exclaimed Mary Louise. "Let's hurry, or we won't be able to get anything to eat, and I always love to eat in a dining car."

Jumping up from the seat, she and the Princess swam down the aisle, across the vestibuled platform, through the next car, and then into the diner.

There were quite a number of passengers still seated at the different little tables. A soldierly looking Penguin sat at one and a few tables beyond a motherly looking Seal with a baby boy Seal at her side was just finishing some delicious looking pink water ice.

Mary Louise and the Mermaid sat down at the nearest table and looked over the menu. It was great fun selecting what they wanted, and when they had finished their water ices they felt that they had dined most sumptuously.

They then returned to their seats and looked out of the window for a time. Strange sights met their eyes as the train rushed on. There were no telegraph poles to count, nor cows to see grazing in green meadows. Instead, however, were numerous fish swimming here and there, some of gorgeous coloring, others of white or silver hue. Hills and valleys of sand, as well as long meadows of seaweed, stretched away for miles and miles. Strange-looking sea animals crawled close to the rushing train. If they came too close the suction of the water drew them along until they disappeared beneath the car.

As darkness settled down over the quiet deep, Mary Louise turned from the window with a sigh. "I feel sleepy already," she said, "and it's only supper time!"

"We'll tell the porter to make up our berths," said the Mermaid Princess. "He can do it while we are having our supper in the dining car."

On their return they found their berth in readiness. Soft green seaweed curtains hung gracefully to the floor, one of them being drawn aside, showing a little white bed. It looked as comfortable as her own little bed at home, Mary Louise thought.

It took the two little mermaids but a few minutes to undress, and as soon as their tired heads touched the pillow they were sound asleep.

Softly the seabells are ringing away, Dipping and dripping and white with the spray, Ding-dong, and ding-dong, and ding-dong, so deep, The seabells are singing me softly to sleep.

Over and over again in her dreams little Mary Louise repeated this song. Then suddenly the bells seemed to change their tune. They clanged out wildly until a sudden loud crash awoke her with a start. The engine whistle was sending forth loud, warning cries. The Mermaid Princess began to tremble with fright.

"What do you suppose is the matter?" she whispered.

"I'm sure I don't know," replied little Mary Louise. "Perhaps there's something on the track."

By this time all the passengers were thrusting their heads out through the curtains of their berths.

"Porter, Porter!" called the Penguin, who had been vainly pressing the electric call-button.

But as usual, when a porter was wanted he is nowhere to be found.

Then the Baby Seal began to cry. Suddenly all the lights went out. Mary Louise hastily caught up her clothes and commenced dressing. "Thank goodness," she said in a trembling voice, "I don't have to bother with stockings!"

"I never was anything but a Mermaid," said the Princess in a frightened whisper, "so I don't know anything about them!"

"Where's my waist?" asked Mary Louise, hardly able to keep from crying. "I can't find it anywhere, and it's so dreadfully dark, too."

"Oh, dear me!" suddenly cried the Mermaid Princess. "I believe I'm trying to get yours on over mine. I'm so excited I forgot that I already had on my own."

"Well, I'm dressed at last," exclaimed Mary Louise after wriggling and squirming about for a few minutes longer. "Isn't it awful hard work dressing in a berth?"

Suddenly the engine bell clanged out more furiously than ever. The whistle shrieked again and again. Mary Louise looked with frightened eyes at the princess who gave a cry of terror and threw her arms about her neck as the lights again went out. Then there was a sudden crash, and the Iceberg Express shivered and toppled over.

The next instant Mary Louise and the Mermaid Princess found themselves in the water.

It was quite warm and pleasant, and in a few minutes they reached the surface. To their surprise they saw their fellow passenger, the little Star Fish, swimming near them, and not far away, on a piece of ice, the Polar Bear porter.

"Where are we?" asked Mary Louise. But no one replied to her question, although the Star Fish looked all around, before and behind and both sides at once, which I'm sure you can't do no matter how hard you may try--while with his fifth eye he kept a bright lookout for sharks.

Presently the Polar Bear porter replied, "I think we are in the Caribbean Sea."

And if you don't know where that is, please get out you map of North America, although school is over, and find it.

"I never thought we'd get here so soon," said the little Star Fish at last. "You see, I boarded the train somewhere off Cape Cod. And that's a long way from here."

"I got on much farther north," said the Polar Bear porter, fanning himself with a large sea shell. "Gracious me, but it's dreadfully hot down here."

"This Caribbean Sea is as full of mountains as New Hampshire and Vermont are, but none of them have caps of snow like that which Mount Washington sometimes wears," said the Mermaid Princess. "Snow wouldn't last a second under this hot sun."

"Where did you learn all this?" asked Mary Louise.

"Oh, I went to the Coral School for Girls," answered the Mermaid Princess, and she sighed, for she suddenly remembered she was a long way from home.

Just then the little Star Fish met a soft little body, much smaller than himself, who invited him to visit her relatives, who live, by millions, in this mountain region.

So off they started for Coraltown, where this little Miss Polyp lived.

Her father and mother, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts, were all polyps. They had built the coral islands by fastening themselves to the tops of the mountains under the sea, year after year, and at last their soft bodies had turned into stone. And now you know how these millions of little polyps finally made the small islands that dotted the surface of the water.

After the Star Fish and his little friend had swum away, Mary Louise spied a boat drifting toward them. So she and the Mermaid Princess scrambled inside, and the polar Bear porter hoisted a sail, which he found wrapped around a mast in the bottom of the boat.

"Hip, hurrah, we're off once more," Shouted the Polar Bear, waving his paw, And the Mermaid Princess laughed in glee As he held the tiller and sailed o'er the sea!

By and by the air became colder and the Mermaid said:

"We must be near my father's castle. I think I'll slip into the ocean and swim home."

"Before you go, please comb my hair with your magic comb so that I may be a little girl again," begged Mary Louise; "I don't want to be a mermaid forever."

As soon as the magic pearl comb touched Mary Louise's hair her tail changed into her own little pair of legs.

"Now kiss me good-by," said the little Mermaid Princess, and, with a splash, she disappeared in the ocean.

Wonderland

For a few minutes Mary Louise felt quite lonely. Presently she asked the Polar Bear to be kind enough to land her on the nearest shore.

At once the big kind animal trimmed in his sail and before long they entered a beautiful bay whose dark waters were dotted with the white sails of the fisher boats, and directly in front, climbing up to the sky, a high mountain on which stood a castle, where from a tall tower all night long shone a light that could hardly be told from the stars around it.

Mary Louise jumped from the boat to the beach, and then turned to wave good-by to the Polar Bear as he sailed away to the North Pole.

Nearby sat an old fisherman on a bench mending his net.

"Hello, little girl," he said, as Mary Louise hesitated. "Moor your little hulk 'longside o' me an' I'll spin you a yarn!"

Then he began to tell how, many hundred years ago, all the land around about was covered with a thick forest instead of the deep blue water of the bay.

Then came the great giant Cormoran, who was 18 feet high and 3 yards wide, and his wife Cormelian, who was just as big, and they brought from the hills great gray rocks which they piled up, one on the other, hundreds of feet high, until they had made a mountain. And on the top of this they built their castle, where they lived until the giant's wife died and was buried under the Chapel rock.

Then Jack the Giant Killer climbed up the mountain, and after a hard fight Cormoran was killed, and there were no more giants in the land.

Next came the Small People, who cut down most of the forest, and built cottages for themselves, ploughed the fields and made gardens.

But one day a great enchanter came that way, and his strange dress and long gray beard frightened the women and children, and they shut their doors in his face whenever he asked for a drink, for he had walked far and was tired and thirsty.

At last he found the principal man of the Small People, a little old crusty fellow and very miserly. And when the great enchanter asked him for a drink of water, the Small Man told him he didn't keep a hotel for beggars. And this made the great enchanter so angry that he struck the ground with his staff, so that it made a deep hole, and then he went upon his journey.

Soon a little spring of water bubbled up through the hole, and by and by a stream burst forth that swelled to a river, and after a time the whole land was drowned, and only the high mountain remained above the water.

But the Small People who were buried under the water didn't die. They lived on just the same, waiting for the enchanter to return and lift the spell, and the land to rise, again with all the people on it.

When the old fisherman had finished his story, he said, "I will take you in my boat to see the Small People deep down in the water.

"Yes, come with me in my boat and you shall see the Wonderland under the Sea."

As soon as the old fisherman had hoisted the sail, away they went out to sea over a wide path of moonlight like a silver road leading straight out to the sky where it dipped down to the water.

All of a sudden Mary Louise noticed something come close up under the side of the boat, and remain there staring straight at her. She bent over until she nearly touched the water, when what she had taken for a fish appeared to be a very odd-looking little man. He was even shorter than she, very broad about the shoulders, with funny little arms and feet that were brought together at the heels, with the toes turned straight out when he stood up, making them look like a fish's tail. His eyes were big and round, without any eyelids or eyebrows. But his mouth was the funniest part, and when he opened it, he looked like a fish trying to talk. He was dressed in silvery white, shaded to blue and green.

With a sudden nod, he pointed to the road which opened behind him down through the depths of the water until lost in the distance.

Little Mary Louise could not take her eyes from him, and, forgetting all about the old fisherman and the boat, she bent over more and more, so as to look closer at the funny little old man, until, splash! down she went into the water.

Then came a tremendous ringing in her ears and she felt her breath go and she knew nothing more until she found herself standing with the strange little fish man by the side of a splendid carriage made of a scallop shell, burnished until it shone with pearl and silver, and drawn by two beautiful gold-fish and two silver-fish harnessed with the silken threads of the finest sea-mosses, and driven by an old coachman that looked like a mackerel.

"We are the sea-horses of the deep, And we race through the waters blue, Faster than wind and swifter than tide We gallop the ocean through."

"Jump in," said the little old fish man; and without a question Mary Louise stepped into the carriage and sat down on the beautiful pea-green cushions.

Then the little man got in, the mackerel-faced coachman cracked his whip, the gold and the silver fishes darted ahead, and away they went.

Great trees waved their long branches as the carriage swept past, and odd-looking shapes came out from behind them. Huge mouths opened and shut, long arms waved about trying to catch anything in their reach, and fierce looking monsters with fishes' heads came rushing in from all sides, to stare at little Mary Louise with their great savage eyes.

Presently the little old man stood up and bowing politely, told them that Mary Louise had never caught a fish with a cruel hook.

Then these dreadful monsters snapped their horny jaws and swam away.

At once the mackerel-faced coachman whipped up his team of gold and silver fishes and away they went spinning down the road again.

At last the carriage stopped in front of a fine mansion, and Mary Louise and the little old man jumped out on the smooth beach of sparkling sand which sloped down to a glassy lake on which curious and beautiful little boats were sailing in all directions.

Along the edge of the lake were many houses, some stately castles and some little cottages. The little cottages were covered with creeping plants abloom with red flowers and the stately castles with moss like vines.

But the people. Oh dear me! They were the strangest folk! Some had very long noses and ugly looking teeth in their wide mouths, and others were so thin they looked like small sticks, and others so round that they could almost trundle themselves along like a coach-wheel. Some were dressed in the shabbiest clothes, others in splendid suits, and some covered with knobs and spikes and strange looking armor.

"Come," said the little fish man, and he led Mary Louise into his house.

Presently he brought out from a closet a quaintly shaped box. "It is the legend of Wonderland that a little girl shall break the spell that hangs over us. For it is deemed well-nigh impossible that a mortal child would venture beneath the water to visit us. Therefore, little Mary Louise, if I call all my people together, will you open this box and deliver us from the spell of the Great Enchanter?"

"I will," she answered bravely, and at once the little old fish man called together all his subjects.

As little Mary Louise looked at the box she saw printed on the cover these words:

"If a little girl mortal Shall uncover this prize, The sea will sink And the land will rise."

And, would you believe it, the first thing she knew after carefully opening the box, she was back in the boat with the old sailor, who was shading his eyes and looking towards a beautiful green island that had suddenly come out of the water.

The Enchanted Prince

"Would you like to land on the island?" asked the old sailor who seemed in no wise surprised that an island should suddenly come up out of the sea.

"Yes," gasped little Mary Louise, "it may be a wonderful place. I certainly saw strange things beneath the water."

"To be sure you did," replied the old sailor, taking it as a matter of course that a little girl should make a trip to Wonder Land under the Sea, and return safe and sound.

But then, you know, Mary Louise may have still retained some of the charm of the little mermaid's magic comb.

Well, anyway, the old sailor steered his boat over to the green island, where Mary Louise jumped out and after saying good-by to her sailor friend, set off to look for new adventures.

After a while, she came to a great wood, where the trees were as big around as smoke stacks on an ocean liner.

All of a sudden, she heard the sound of a woodman's ax, and the crackling of the branches as they fell to the ground.

"It must be some giant cutting down a tree," she thought, and she started off in the direction of the sound, and by and by, she saw a giant beaver. He was a most wonderful sort of an animal, for he could swing an ax as well as a man. Near at hand flowed a great river, where a white water horse snorted as he dashed the spray high in the air with his forefeet.

"Are you one of Neptune's horses?" asked little Mary Louise. "I once read a story of a little boy named Hero who rode with King Neptune in his wonderful chariot."

"No, little girl," answered the beautiful sea horse kindly. "But I can show you some wonderful things. Jump on my back and I will take you to a strange place."

Then away went the great Water Horse over the water and through the spray and Mary Louise wasn't the least bit afraid although she had no water wings and might have slipped of into the water.

"Where are we going?" she asked, after a while, for by this time they were far away from the shore and going up a dark river.

"I'm going to show you the beautiful Green Waterfall Cave," answered the big Sea Horse, shaking his mane until it seemed almost as if it were raining.

Well, pretty soon he stopped, telling Mary Louise to bend over his back, before he swam into a big opening in a gray rock.

"Now lift up your head," he said, and when Mary Louise looked around she saw they were in a beautiful cave. All about them were strange people, Mermaids and Water Nymphs, Water Sprites and Mermen, fishes and dolphins, and even a whale, although he wasn't very large. If he had been, he wouldn't have been there, for the entrance to the cave was just wide enough for him to squeeze through.

Well, no sooner did they see the big Sea Horse, than they all said at once,

"Hail to our King!" and crowded around looking curiously at Mary Louise, and one little mermaid pinched her toe.

"This is Mary Louise," explained the great white Sea Horse. "I have brought her to our cave to see the wonders of our Water Country."

At once the whale blew a stream of water into the air, the dolphins turned somersaults and the little mermaid who had just pinched Mary Louise's toe, stood up on a big pearly shell and sang:

"In this river that leads to the sea, We all live happy as happy can be, The crocodile comes and opens his jaws, And the giant crab stretches out his claws, And the sword fish chases the sharp toothed shark, But here we are safe when the day grows dark, And the pale white moon looks down from the sky, And the little star winks her golden eye."

And when she had finished, she swam up close to the big Sea Horse and picking up Mary Louise placed her in a great shell that sailed over the water just like a boat to the end of the cave where a little path ran along close to the water's edge till it came to a door.

"Tap gently three times," said the little mermaid.

And then, all of a sudden, it opened and there stood a great Sea Serpent.

"What do you want?" he asked with a dreadful hiss and his breath was like steam and his long red tongue like a thin flame.

"O wise Serpent," said the mermaid, "do not frighten little Mary Louise. She is traveling through our country and means no harm."

"Then she may come into my kingdom," replied the great Serpent, and he glided swiftly away.

"Do not fear him," said the little mermaid. "I cannot go with you, but you will be perfectly safe," and she closed the door and swam away, leaving little Mary Louise all alone.

It was a strange country in which Mary Louise found herself as she followed the great Serpent who was now some distance ahead. Great trees and moss-covered rocks were on every side, and only by keeping to the narrow path was it possible to find a way through them.

By and by the Serpent stopped at a gate in a high stone wall, which swung open slowly as he tapped upon it.

"Now, let me tell you something," he said, leading Mary Louise to a seat beneath a beautiful tree in a large garden close by a stately castle.

While she rested on the marble bench the great Serpent coiled himself in a ring, his head raised about two feet above the ground. He had wonderful black eyes and as he looked at her she almost fancied there were tears in them.

"Once upon a time, not so very long ago," he began, "a young prince lived in this castle. But one day a wicked magician disguised as a poor beggar came to the kitchen door and asked for bread. Now it happened to be baking day, and the Royal Baker had just placed a thousand loaves of dough in the oven. He was tired and hot and said to the beggar in a cross voice: 'You must wait until evening.' This made the beggar man dreadfully angry, and the next minute he waved a crooked stick above his head and cried, 'Let the master of this castle and his household become snakes!' Instantly, a great change came over all who lived in the castle. The prince turned into a serpent and all the retainers became snakes."

As he finished speaking, the poor Snake gave a low cry and hid his head in the grass.

"Cheer up," said Mary Louise, for she knew at once that the serpent was the poor prince in disguise. "I have a magic ring!"

Dear me, I forgot to mention that the Princess Mermaid had given it to little Mary Louise for a charm against evil.

"But what can that do for me?" asked the poor serpent prince.

"Leave that to me," replied little Mary Louise, and she turned the magic ring around three times, and, all of a sudden, a little Black Man appeared.

"What can I do for you, little Mistress?" he asked.

"This serpent was once a handsome prince," explained Mary Louise, "but by the magic of a wicked magician has been changed into a snake. Help him to regain his natural shape."

"That is a hard matter," said the little Black Man thoughtfully. "I know this wicked magician. He has great power and it takes a strong charm to work against his evil power."

And then the little Black Man ran his hand through his crinkly hair and thought for a while.