When Doris was a Mermaid 10 5

thing happened and then it was all ended.
I was not a mermaid any more, and |
longed and longed to go back. So, I
suppose, my heart broke at last, and I
died. But sometimes—even now—when |
wake from dreaming I still long to go back
again.”

‘Do you?” said the Visitor, softly.

‘IT go to my window and look out, and
the sea is shining in the moonlight. Once
I thought I heard the mermen and the
mermaids singing, and always I know they
are lying out there in the quiet water and
looking up at the stars, with the starlight
round them on the waves. And a bed is
uncomfortable when you remember that.”

She paused, and looked wistfully out
across the waters, dotted so far as the
horizon line with the brown sails of the
fishing-boats which had gone creeping out
while she told her tale. ‘One of these
days,” said she, softly, “I shall have
learned to swim well, and I shall be
stronger than | am now; then I will come