THE LITTLE SEA MAID. 383

They wished themselves back again, and after a month had
elapsed they said it was best of all down below, for there one felt
so comfortably at home.

Many an evening hour the five sisters took one another by the
arm and rose up in a row over the water. They had splendid
voices, more charming than any mortal could have; and when
a storm was approaching, so that they could apprehend that ships
would go down, they swam on before the ships, and sang lovely
songs, which told how beautiful it was at the bottom of the sea,
and exhorted the sailors not to be afraid to come down. But
these could not understand the words, and thought it was the
storm sighing ; and they did not see the splendours below, for
if the ships sank they were drowned, and came as corpses to the
Sea King’s palace.

When the sisters thus rose up, arm in arm, in the evening-time,
through the water, the little sister stood all alone looking after
them; and she felt as if she must weep; but the sea maid has
no tears, and for this reason she suffers far more acutely.

“ Oh, if I were only fifteen years old!” said she. “I know I
shall love the world up there very much, and the people who live
and dwell there.”

At last she was really fifteen years old.

“ Now, you see, you are growing up,” said the grandmother,
the old dowager. “Come, let me adorn you like your sisters.”

And she put a wreath of white lilies in the little maid’s hair,
but each flower was half a pearl ; and the old lady let eight oysters
attach themselves to the Princess’s tail, in token of her high
rank,

“But that hurts so!” said the little sea maid.

“Yes, pride must suffer pain,” replied the old lady.

Oh, how glad she would have been to shake off all the tokens
of rank and lay aside the heavy wreath! Her red flowers in the
garden suited her better; but she could not help it. “ Farewell !”
she said, and then she rose, light and clear as a water-bubble, up
through the sea,

The sun had just set when she lifted her head above the sea,
but all the clouds still shone like roses and gold, and in the pale
red sky the evening stars gleamed bright and beautiful. The air
was mild and fresh and the sea quite calm, There lay a great
ship with three masts; one single sail only was set, for not a
breeze stirred, and around in the shrouds and on the yards sat
the sailors. There was music and singing, and as the evening
closed in, hundreds of coloured lanterns were lighted up, and
looked as if the flags of every nation were waving in the air.
The little sea maid swam straight to the cabin window, and each
time the sea lifted her up she could look through the panes, which
were clear as crystal,and see many people standing within dressed
in their best. But the handsomest of all was the young Prince