About this story
Days later you trace it to a fairground tent, where a captured mermaid tells you she will die unless you free her, and asks you to return at midnight with a chariot that can carry her back to the sea. You can promise only to think it over, and she promises only to wait.
How it opens
The long-promised seaside holiday finally approached after years in which something always prevented it.
An aquarium will let us bring a little of the shore home when summer ends.
You and Mavis spent your pooled money on a glass tank for anemones, weed, crabs, and starfish.
Aunt EnidCarrying a fragile empty box by train is nonsense, and the answer is no.
Then let us test it at home so we know whether it leaks before the next chance.
Bathwater will prove the glass, even if it cannot make a sea.