Well, pretty soon he stopped, telling Mary Louise to bend over his back, before he swam into a big opening in a gray rock.
"Now lift up your head," he said, and when Mary Louise looked around she saw they were in a beautiful cave. All about them were strange people, Mermaids and Water Nymphs, Water Sprites and Mermen, fishes and dolphins, and even a whale, although he wasn't very large. If he had been, he wouldn't have been there, for the entrance to the cave was just wide enough for him to squeeze through.
Well, no sooner did they see the big Sea Horse, than they all said at once,
"Hail to our King!" and crowded around looking curiously at Mary Louise, and one little mermaid pinched her toe.
"This is Mary Louise," explained the great white Sea Horse. "I have brought her to our cave to see the wonders of our Water Country."
At once the whale blew a stream of water into the air, the dolphins turned somersaults and the little mermaid who had just pinched Mary Louise's toe, stood up on a big pearly shell and sang:
"In this river that leads to the sea,
We all live happy as happy can be,
The crocodile comes and opens his jaws,
And the giant crab stretches out his claws,
And the sword fish chases the sharp toothed shark,
But here we are safe when the day grows dark,
And the pale white moon looks down from the sky,
And the little star winks her golden eye."
And when she had finished, she swam up close to the big Sea Horse and picking up Mary Louise placed her in a great shell that sailed over the water just like a boat to the end of the cave where a little path ran along close to the water's edge till it came to a door.
"Tap gently three times," said the little mermaid.
And then, all of a sudden, it opened and there stood a great Sea Serpent.