THE LITTLE SEA MAID. 308

the Prince, who in his sleep murmured his bride’s name. She
only was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the sea maid’s
hand. But then she flung it far away into the waves—they
gleamed red where it fell, and it seemed as if drops of blood
spurted up out of the water. Once more she looked with half-
extinguished eyes upon the Prince; then she threw herself from
the ship into the sea, and felt her frame dissolving into foam.

Now the sun rose up out ‘of the sea. The rays fell mild and
warm upon the cold sea-foam, and the little sea maid felt nothing
of death. She saw the bright sun, and over her head sailed hun-
dreds of glorious ethereal beings—-she could see them through the
white sails of the ship and the red clouds of the sky; their speech
was melody, but of such a spiritual kind that no human ear could
hear it, just as no human eye could see them; without wings they
floated through the air. The little sea maid found that she had
a frame like these, and was rising more and more out of the foam.

“Whither am I going?” she asked ; and her voice sounded
like that of the other beings, so spiritual, that no earthly music
could be compared to it.

‘To the daughters of the air !” replied the others. “A sea maid
has no immortal soul, and can never gain one, except she win the
love of a mortal. Her eternal existence depends upon the power
of another. The daughters of the air have likewise no immortal
soul, but they can make themselves one through good deeds. We
fly to the hot countries, where the close pestilent air kills men,
and there we bring coolness. We disperse the fragrance of the
flowers through the air, and spread refreshment and health. After
we have striven for three hundred years to accomplish all the
good we can bring about, we receive an immortal soul and take
part in the eternal happiness of men, You, poor little sea maid,
have striven with your whole heart after the goal we pursue; you
have suffered and endured; you have by good works raised your-
self to the world of spirits, and can gain an immortal soul after
three hundred years.”

And the little sea maid lifted her glorified eyes towards God's
sun, and for the first time she felt them fill with tears. On the
ship there was again life and noise. She saw the Prince and his
bride searching for her; then they looked mournfully at the
pearly foam, as if they knew that she had thrown herself into
the waves. Invisible, she kissed the forehead of the bride,
fanned the Prince, and mounted with the other children of the
air on the rosy cloud which floated through the ether.

After three hundred years we shall thus float into Paradise!

“ And we may even get there sooner,” whispered a daughter of
the air. “ Invisibly we float into the houses of men where children
are, and for every day on which we find a good child that brings
joy to its parents and deserves their love, our time of probation
is shortened. The child does not know when we fly through the