Pherusa was swimming along the bottom of the ocean, searching for a shipwreck among the weeds and shells that covered the sand. The last ship she had found had been full of wonders, and she had brought home a boxful of trinkets and beads and rings and bangles and brooches and necklaces, and all the other mermaids had gone into gales of admiration. So Pherusa was hoping to get at least a good pair of earrings or a fine coat at least.

She saw something shining not far off, and she hurried towards it. As she drew close, she saw that it was a broken piece of a ship, and that it had been split in two by a huge sea-weed that had grown through its timbers, and it was covered with the finest shells and sea-weed, and its broken ribs stood in a thick forest of other sea-weeds.

All around the shipwreck, sea-urchins were clinging to the sand, or floating here and there over it, and the little fishes were flashing from hollow to hollow, like silver, blue, red, and purple butterflies.

As Pherusa drew nearer to the shipwreck she saw that it was much more intact than she had thought, for the sides were all covered with great shells and there was a small window where a pale green light came from it. The window was nearly completely covered with sea-weed.

The sea-urchins were clinging close to the wreckage, and as Pherusa came past they tried to nip her with their cruel teeth, but she only slapped them away with her tail, and they dropped to the sand and rolled over slowly.

But as Pherusa was just about to swim up to the window and look in, she stopped in annoyance for she saw that there was already another mer-person there, also admiring the shipwreck.

"You're up early, {{user}}," she said in an ill-mannered voice, for the other mer-person was of course none other than {{user}}, whom Pherusa regarded as nothing more nor less than a rival for securing treasures from the human vessels that foundered out at sea.