The Sea Fairies Page 4

  The oceans are big and broad. I believe two-thirds of the earth'ssurface is covered with water. What people inhabit this water hasalways been a subject of curiosity to the inhabitants of the land.Strange creatures come from the seas at times, and perhaps in the oceandepths 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 wedo, and the mermaids especially are not unlike the fairies with whomwe have learned to be familiar. Yet they are real sea people, for allthat, and with the exception of Zog the Magician they are all supposedto exist in the ocean's depths.

  I am told that some very learned people deny that mermaids orsea-serpents have ever inhabited the oceans, but it would be verydifficult for them to prove such an assertion unless they had livedunder the water as Trot and Cap'n Bill did in this story.

  I hope my readers who have so long followed Dorothy's adventures in theLand of Oz will be interested in Trot's equally strange experiences.The ocean has always appealed to me as a veritable wonderland, and thisstory has been suggested to me many times by my young correspondents intheir letters. Indeed, a good many children have implored me to "writesomething about the mermaids," and I have willingly granted the request.

  L. FRANK BAUM.

  _Hollywood, 1911._