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<h2> CHAPTER IX. </h2> <center> LORD DOLPHIN ON LAND </center> Well, we sailed and we sailed, but it was poor sailing for me, and every hour I longed to make a monster jump, clear the railing, and splash into the splendid bed beneath the cooped-up tank. But Folks know how to make things strong and secure, and once or twice, when I tried leaping, it was only to bang my sides against the edges of the tank, and spatter the deck far and wide, making extra work for the sailors. After a time, we ran through what Jack called "the Strait of Gibraltar," and were in the great Atlantic Ocean, and one day Jack said to me: "Now then, me hearty, we're making a bee-line for New York City, and it's a big tub they'll be giving you at the fine park, I'm thinking." So I knew I was to take the place of the crocodile, and be made a show of. I tried to make the best of things. Folks amused me by standing near the tank and talking about affairs. The band played delightfully. Salt water was freshly supplied me every day or two. I learned that my fare was much greater than any other voyager's on board, that is, it cost more to carry me. But think of a passenger that would have been perfectly thankful to have been thrown overboard! I was that same fellow. After about ten days, which seemed like a year to me, there was great excitement all around. Such a running and tramping, such a waving of hats and handkerchiefs. Ah! we were landing. Roland came to my side and exclaimed: "Good-by, Dolly, old boy! I may see you sometime in your new quarters." Little Amy lisped a hurried, "By, by, Dolly, good Fishy!" and after an hour or two, all the passengers had left the boat except the man who owned me and myself. Nor was I moved until the next day. Then I was made to swim into a smaller tank, not much longer than I am, in which I could not have lived, it seemed to me, a single day.   <center> <ANTIMG src="./images/06.png" height-obs="698" width-obs="450" alt="'I Was Given My First Ride on Land'"> </center> But I was next boosted, tank and all, on to a great dray, drawn by creatures called "horses." Sailors joked, drivers laughed, a crowd peered at me with eyes full of wonder, and I was given my first ride on land, yet in what to me was a mere puddle of water. Ah, how new and strange! The jolting and the bouncing, the noise, the whistles, the voices, rattling of heavy wagons, booming of cars overhead and along the ground, strange calls and ringing of bells, the whole mixed racket nearly stunning me, for my hearing is very acute and sharp. I cannot tell you how distracting it all was to a poor, pent-up fish. I felt like anything but a "lord" then. And what was this unknown matter floating into my squeezed-up basin? Dust! Something I had never seen before, and—I didn't like it! The sea for me, first, last, and forever! At the park I must say things were fine, and could they only have been more natural, I should have had considerable fun. I found that a Dolphin on land, although kept in a small square pond, was indeed quite a curiosity, both to young Folks and older ones. I imagine that a quantity of coarse salt was thrown every little while into the larger space now given me, else I could scarcely have lived. But my keepers were attentive and kind, the young Folks threw me many kinds of strange food, and "Bless my lights!" as Jack would say, what kind of things do Folks live on! Great quantities of little oblong balls, snapped out of a shell, different from any kind of shell I had ever seen before, were thrown me nearly every hour of the day. Oh, yes, they were called "peanuts." Really, I liked them, only it took about a hundred to get enough to chew on. Then there were white things, making me think of some small shells, as there were peeps of yellow inside. Ah, I remember again, they were named "popcorn." I preferred the peanuts. I didn't know what to think of "taffy." Jinks! how it stuck to a fellow's jaws! Bah! the whole lot of stuff called "candy" was too sweet and sticky. Some jolly-looking people that came to the park for what they called a "picnic," tossed me queer food named "doughnuts," and "ginger-snaps." Yes, I liked them, too, particularly the snaps. Then there was an everlasting fruit named "banana" that I liked at first, it was so soft and slipped down so easily, but I had too much of it, and grew tired of it. I grew tame, would raise my great head close to the strong wire-netting, and over would come all kinds of what Folks call "treats." Once, however, a man-Folk threw me part of a small round, dark roll or stick, such as men-Folks put in their mouths at one end, and send out smoke from the other end. Boo, bumaloo, what stuff! bitter and horrid! Men-Folks must have a queer taste to enjoy tasting and smoking such black, weedy things. One taste of a "cigar" was enough for me. I was sorry not to see the boy Roland or the little girl Amy again, but I think they may have gone to some other land-place, and so could not come to the park. But although I saw so many other pleasant young Folks, I did not forget them. Then, to my sorrow, just as I was getting used to things, although always in a homesick way, I heard the keepers talking, and learned that I was to be moved to another great city, where there was to be an "exposition," or a showing of strange and useful things from many different lands and seas, really an "exhibition." I began growing flabby and thin. My spirits were at ebb-tide, very low. I felt as if pining to death. Ah, me! I would have given all the pearls of the ocean and sea, could I have got hold of them, to be back in my own dear Mediterranean groves.         <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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