"Then," replied the albatross, "as soon as you feel _very_ hungry, lie
down in the bottom of the boat and go to sleep. You will dream that
you see before you a roasted fowl, some new potatoes, and an
apple-pie. Mind you don't eat too much in your dream, or you will be
sorry for it when you wake. That is all. Good-by! I must go."
Jack put his arms round the neck of the bird, and hugged her; then she
spread her magnificent wings and sailed slowly away. At first he felt
very lonely, but in a few minutes he forgot that, because the little
boat began to swim so fast.
She was not sailing, for she had no sail, and he was not rowing, for
he had no oars; so I am obliged to call her motion swimming, because I
don't know of a better word. In less than a quarter of an hour they
passed close under the bows of a splendid three-decker, a seventy-gun
ship. The gannets who live in those parts had taken possession of
her, and she was so covered with nests that you could not have walked
one step on her deck without treading on them. The father birds were
aloft in the rigging, or swimming in the warm, green sea, and they
made such a clamor when they saw Jack that they nearly woke the
fairies,--nearly, but not quite, for the little things turned round in
Jack's pockets, and sneezed, and began to snore again.
Then the boat swam past a fine brig. Some sea fairies had just flung
her cargo overboard, and were playing at leap-frog on deck. These were
not at all like Jack's own fairies; they were about the same height
and size as himself, and they had brown faces, and red flannel shirts
and red caps on. A large fleet of the pearly nautilus was collected
close under the vessel's lee. The little creatures were feasting on
what the sea fairies had thrown overboard, and Jack's boat, in its
eagerness to get on, went plunging through them so roughly that
several were capsized. Upon this the brown sea fairies looked over,
and called out angrily, "Boat ahoy!" and the boat stopped.
"Tell that boat of yours to mind what she is about," said the fairy
sea-captain to Jack.
Jack touched his hat, and said, "Yes, sir," and then called out to his
boat, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself, running down these little
live fishing-vessels so carelessly. Go at a more gentle pace."
So it swam more slowly; and Jack, being by this time hungry, curled
himself up in the bottom of the boat, and fell asleep.
He dreamt directly about a fowl and some potatoes, and he ate a wing,
and then he ate a merry-thought, and then somebody said to him that he
had better not eat any more, but he did,--he ate another wing; and
presently an apple-pie came, and he ate some of that, and then he ate
some more, and then he immediately woke.
"Now that bird told me not to eat too much," said Jack, "and yet I
have done it. I never felt so full in my life;" and for more than
half an hour he scarcely noticed anything.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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