The Sea Fairies by L. Frank Baum

THE oceans are big and broad. I believe two-thirds of the earths surface is covered with water. What people inhabit this water has always been a subject of curiosity to the inhabitants of the land. Strange creatures come from the seas at times, and perhaps in the ocean depths are many, more strange than mortal eye has ever gazed upon. This story is fanciful. In it the sea people talk and act much as we do, and the mermaids especially are not unlike the fairies with whom we have learned to be familiar. Yet they are real sea people, for all that, and with the exception of Zog the Magician they are all supposed to exist in the oceans depths. I am told that some very learned people deny that mermaids or sea-serpents have ever inhabited the oceans, but it would be very difficult for them to prove such an assertion unless they had lived under the water as Trot and Capn Bill did in this story. 1—Trot and Capn Bill2—The Mermaids3—The Depths of the Deep Blue Sea4—The Palace of Queen Aquareine5—The Sea Serpent6—Exploring the Ocean7—The Aristocratic Codfish8—A Banquet Under Water9—The Bashful Octopus10—An Undiscovered Island11—Zog the Terrible, and His Sea Devils12—The Enchanted Castle13—Prisoners of the Sea Monster14—Capn Joe and Capn Bill15—The Magic of the Mermaids16—The Top of the Great Dome17—The Queens Golden Sword18—A Dash for Liberty19—King Anko to the Rescue20—The Home of the Ocean Monarch21—King Joe22—Trot Lives to Tell the Tale   About Author: Lyman Frank Baum (May 15, 1856 – May 6, 1919), better known by his pen name L. Frank Baum, was an American author chiefly known for his childrens books, particularly The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He wrote thirteen novel sequels, nine other fantasy novels, and a host of other works (55 novels in total, plus four lost works, 83 short stories, over 200 poems, an unknown number of scripts, and many miscellaneous writings), and made nu-merous attempts to bring his works to the stage and screen. His works anticipated such century-later commonplaces as television, augmented reality, laptop computers (The Master Key), wireless telephones (Tik-Tok of Oz), women in high risk, action-heavy occupations (Mary Louise in the Country), and the ubiquity of advertising on clothing (Aunt Janes Nieces at Work). * * *