THE oceans are big and broad. I believe two-thirds of the earth's surface is covered with
water. What people inhabit this water has always been a subject of curiosity to the
inhabitants of the land. Strange creatures come from the seas at times, and perhaps in the
ocean depths are many, more strange than mortal eye has ever gazed upon.
This story is fanciful. In it the sea people talk and act much as we do, and the mermaids
especially are not unlike the fairies with whom we have learned to be familiar. Yet they
are real sea people, for all that, and with the exception of Zog the Magician they are all
supposed to exist in the ocean's depths.
I am told that some very learned people deny that mermaids or sea-serpents have ever
inhabited the oceans, but it would be very difficult for them to prove such an assertion
unless they had lived under the water as Trot and Cap'n Bill did in this story.
I hope my readers who have so long followed Dorothy's adventures in the Land of Oz
will be interested in Trot's equally strange experiences. The ocean has always appealed to
me as a veritable wonderland, and this story has been suggested to me many times by my
young correspondents in their letters. Indeed, a good many childred have implored me to
"write something about the mermaids," and I have willingly granted the request.
