Page:Ballinger Price--Us and the Bottle Man.djvu/84

Rh asked her where her gold and ornaments were. So naturally the Bottle Man did n't feel like repeating such a complimentary thing, being an un-stuck-up person, but we did think it was nice of his mother.

We put away the "Handbook" and made the room dark again and were arguing over all the exciting places in the Bottle Man's story, when Greg spoke up suddenly from the corner where we'd almost forgotten him.

"If I found a thing like those mer-persons," he said drowsily, "I would n't let it bite me. I'd keep it in the bath-tub and teach it how to do things."

"Like your precious toad, I suppose," said Jerry. "Don't be idiotic."

So we all went to bed, and I, for one, dreamed about all kinds of glittering treasures and heaps of jewels each as big as your hat, and of our nice old Bottle 70