After about ten days, which seemed like a year to me, there was great excitement all around. Such a running and tramping, such a waving of hats and handkerchiefs. Ah! we were landing. Roland came to my side and exclaimed:
"Good-by, Dolly, old boy! I may see you sometime in your new quarters." Little Amy lisped a hurried, "By, by, Dolly, good Fishy!" and after an hour or two, all the passengers had left the boat except the man who owned me and myself.
Nor was I moved until the next day. Then I was made to swim into a smaller tank, not much longer than I am, in which I could not have lived, it seemed to me, a single day.
But I was next boosted, tank and all, on to a great dray, drawn by creatures called "horses." Sailors joked, drivers laughed, a crowd peered at me with eyes full of wonder, and I was given my first ride on land, yet in what to me was a mere puddle of water.
Ah, how new and strange! The jolting and the bouncing, the noise, the whistles, the voices, rattling of heavy wagons, booming of cars overhead and along the ground, strange calls and ringing of bells, the whole mixed racket nearly stunning me, for my hearing is very acute and sharp. I cannot tell you how distracting it all was to a poor, pent-up fish. I felt like anything but a "lord" then.
And what was this unknown matter floating into my squeezed-up basin? Dust! Something I had never seen before, and—I didn't like it!
The sea for me, first, last, and forever!
At the park I must say things were fine, and could they only have been more natural, I should have had considerable fun. I found that a Dolphin on land, although kept in a small square pond, was indeed quite a curiosity, both to young Folks and older ones.