t is to be free, without those tiresome shoes!" cried the
Princess.

The children paddled in the water until they were tired, and then
Sidigunda thought it was time to put on her slippers again. She ran to
the bank, but gave a cry of astonishment--she could only find one of
her golden shoes! Tears sprang to her eyes as she looked about her
wildly.

"Oh what shall I do?" she cried. "My shoe! My Godfather's shoe!"

The children gathered round her eagerly.

"It must be there. Who can have taken it?"

They searched the low sand dunes up and down, but not a trace of the
lost slipper could be found. It was gone as entirely as if it had
never existed; and as the Princess drew on the remaining one, the
tears rolled down her face, and fell upon the sand-hill by which she
was sitting.

"Oh, Godfather! dear Godfather! come and help me!" she wailed. "Do
come and help me!"

At her cry, the sand-hill began to quiver and shake strangely. It
heaved up, and an old man's head, with a long grey beard, appeared in
the middle; followed slowly by a little brown-coated body.

"What is the matter, God-daughter? Your tears trickled down to me and
woke me up, just as I was comfortably sleeping," he said querulously.
"They're saltier than the sea, and I can't stand them."

"My shoe's gone! Oh! whatever am I to do? I'm _so_ sorry, Godfather!"

"So you ought to be!" said the old man sharply. "I told you something
bad would happen if you ever took them off. The question is now,
Where's the shoe gone to?"

He leant his elbows on the mound, and looked out to sea.

"Just what I thought!" he exclaimed. "The Sea-children have taken it
for a boat. I _must_ speak to the Sea-grandmother about them, and get
her to keep them in better order."

"Oh, it's gone then, and I shall never get it back again!" wept the
Princess. "What am I to do, Godfather?"

[Illustration]

"Have you courage enough to go and find your shoe by yourself?"

"If that's the only way to get it back," said the Princess bravely.

"Well, then, you must start immediately, or the Sea-children will
have hidden it away somewhere. You will be obliged to have a passport,
but I'll tell you how to get that. Take this veil"--and he drew a
thin, transparent piece of silvery gauze from his pocket--"and throw
it over your head whenever you go under the water. With it you will be
able to breathe and see, as well as if you were on dry land. From this
flask"--and he handed Sidigunda a