LEGEND has it that the more a fish story is repeated or told time and time again, the fish tend to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger. A small child might wonder why this happens. In time, the young reader will learn that the storyteller, after the first telling of his or her story, becomes amused with his/her storytelling skill, and that the imagination can begin to "run away or run wild" with more and more interesting but untrue details. So the fish grows in size as the story grows in details and length. So get ready for the biggest fish tales ever! Reading is a journey. The stories in this book, The Lonely Mermaid, are journeys into nature, into the innocence and curiosity of childhood, into the human condition, and into the human experience. No matter how big the fish or the tales get, just enjoy the wonderful journeys while reading the stories.

In the Land of Simple Living and simple pleasures, where the summers were hot and long and the winters were mild, where cotton was king and to own land was heavenly, where fish jumped high, and the living was made by farming the land; where days by the ponds, lakes, streams, and creeks were also a simple way to survive.