Lassie with Fins

Flipper. When Sandy came home to his little blue house down on the Florida Keys one day, his mother asked him what that look on his face meant. "There's an eight-foot dying dolphin in the fish pen," said Sandy. Sure enough, there in the pen was Flipper, with a scuba diver's spear stuck in him. "Get me a knife and the iodine," said Mom. Before long Flipper was cavorting, grinning, dancing on his tail, laughing a porpoise laugh that sounded something like a very old automobile starting on a very cold day--ugga-ugga-ugga-ugga, chug-chug!

For a while, Sandy and Flipper have wonderful fun playing together, but Sandy neglects his chores, and when Daddy (TV's Chuck Connors) comes home on his fishing boat, he makes Sandy turn Flipper loose. Soon after that, when Sandy and Daddy are trying to catch fish and bringing up nothing but empty nets, Flipper torpedoes up to the boat with a big smile on his face. Flipper leads them to a whole school of pompano, and Daddy is very happy. Next day Flipper jumps into the fish pen and gobbles up all the pompano, and Daddy is very unhappy. He dislikes dolphins anyway, because they eat a lot of fish and snarl up his nets, so he sets out with a gun to shoot some. "Even Flipper?" Sandy asks tearfully. "Even Flipper," says Daddy. But this aquatic bedtime story has a happy ending, of course. At the fade, Flipper is not only a live dolphin but a hero, even to Sandy's father.

Kids who like Lassie will flip for Flipper. Dolphins, indeed, are likely to rate very high on Christmas lists this year. Parents who contemplate trying to keep one in a backyard pool should bear in mind that a dolphin eats about 15 Ibs. of live fish a day.

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