“Oh, as to that,” replied Mary Frances, “I will fill a bowl with your element, if you will only accept the invitation.”
“Agreed!” said the dolphin, swimming to the rope ladder hanging over the side of the ship. Mary Frances leaned down and caught hold of his fins, when within reach, and helped him up.
When the dolphin reached the deck, she picked up a fire-pail with a rope attached, threw it overside, and brought up a pail of water. Then she hastened to the dining-room and brought a bowl.
After that she helped the dolphin to the dining table. The only chair was clamped in place to the floor, just as on any steamer, and she could not move it. So she changed her place to the side of the table. As the chair was a revolving one, like a desk chair, she turned and turned it until it reached the right height for the dolphin. She placed the bowl of water, “element” she called it, at the dolphin’s place.
[Illustration: MARY FRANCES LEANED DOWN AND CAUGHT HOLD OF HIS FINS]
“Is there anything on the table, Mr. Dolphin,” she asked, “which you would like?”
“Yes,” sighed the dolphin, “I would like some more salt in my element soup.”
Mary Frances gravely shook the salt-shaker over the bowl for a full minute. The dolphin tasted the water. “A little more, please,” he said.
So Mary Frances emptied almost all the rest of the salt out of the shaker into the bowl. The dolphin dipped in his head. “That’s excellent,” he said, smacking his lips.
“Mercy,” thought Mary Frances, “I do hope he won’t turn into a salt mackerel.”
“Salt Smackerel is my pet name,” said the dolphin, smacking his lips again, and wiping them with his fin.
“I hardly dare think,” thought Mary Frances, “yet I can’t help thinking, can I? What queer table manners he has! I suppose his mother never taught him not to smack his lips when he eats--just to chew with the lips closed.”
“I chew all I choose!” exclaimed the dolphin. “My mother never sat at a table, you see.”
“Oh!” said Mary Frances, “did she stand?”
“Three feet high in her stocking feet,” solemnly declared the dolphin, which Mary Frances didn’t consider an answer at all; but was too polite to say anything that might be annoying to a guest.
“I wonder what I can give him for dessert?” she thought.