"Dear me!" he cried, "I wonder if he can have gone off without me."
"No, he hasn't," came a silvery voice from behind him.
Jimmieboy turned sharply about, and there, sitting upon the sofa arrayed in his red bathing-suit, sat a beautiful boy of about his own age and size, with great masses of golden hair falling over his shoulders.
"Hullo!" said Jimmieboy, as soon as he had recovered from his surprise. "Who are you?"
"I am your goldfish," laughed the boy. "Or, rather, I was. I am now my true self. I am a merboy, as, in fact, all goldfish are. See?" he added, holding up what Jimmieboy had taken for feet. "I have a tail like a fish instead of feet."
Jimmieboy was delighted. He had heard all about mermen and mermaids, but merboys were something new.
"Now," said the merboy, as a tremendous lashing of something in the aquarium began to ruffle up the water therein, "come along. Get into my carriage and we shall start."
STARTING OFF.
Mute with astonishment, Jimmieboy could do nothing but obey, and entering a huge vehicle that floated upon the surface of the water in the aquarium—which had, singularly enough, taken on tremendous proportions—the merboy gave a whistle, and they were off. The carriage had the appearance of a superb shell lined with mother-of-pearl, and studded all over with the most costly and lustrous jewels, and soon passing out from the limits of the aquarium, Jimmieboy found himself bounding over a great body of water, drawn by a pair of gayly caparisoned dolphins, which the smiling merboy guided with two golden ribbons.