Yes, ’tis a flying-fish, which, rising above the heavy and obscurer element of its kind, and using its fins as wings, in aërial courses, sparkling like a jewel, beholds the glittering and sunlit scenery of the upper air. There is much similarity between these excursions and the poet’s fancies. And as these lower creatures in their airy flights excite the wonderment of fishes and please men, so may human excursions in the higher element of fancy excite the wonderment of men and please the gods.
Bluegrass [in admiration].
Madam, consider yourself engaged as sea-side correspondent of the Cornville Eagle: topic, sea-fish and their morals. Please accept my card, and draw upon me for a month’s salary.
[Gives his card.
Scythe [writing in his note-book].
Item,—this is important. In evolution, the grasshopper sprang from the flying-fish.
Whetstone.
What birds are those flying above the waves and darting like flying squirrels?
Catharine.
They are the larks of the sea, and in the wake of a ship are wider awake than your land larks.