rise up out of the sea and sit on the rocks in
the moonlight, while the great ships go sailing by. Then you will see
both forests and towns."

In the following year, one of the sisters would be fifteen, but as each
was a year younger than the other, the youngest would have to wait five
years before her turn came to rise up from the bottom of the ocean to
see the earth as we do. However, each promised to tell the others what
she saw on her first visit and what she thought was most beautiful.
Their grandmother could not tell them enough--there were so many things
about which they wanted to know.

None of them longed so much for her turn to come as the youngest--she
who had the longest time to wait and who was so quiet and thoughtful.
Many nights she stood by the open window, looking up through the dark
blue water and watching the fish as they splashed about with their fins
and tails. She could see the moon and stars shining faintly, but through
the water they looked larger than they do to our eyes. When something
like a black cloud passed between her and them, she knew that it was
either a whale swimming over her head, or a ship full of human beings
who never imagined that a pretty little mermaid was standing beneath
them, holding out her white hands towards the keel of their ship.

At length the eldest was fifteen and was allowed to rise to the surface
of the ocean.

When she returned she had hundreds of things to talk about. But the
finest thing, she said, was to lie on a sand bank in the quiet moonlit
sea, near the shore, gazing at the lights of the near-by town, that
twinkled like hundreds of stars, and listening to the sounds of music,
the noise of carriages, the voices of human beings, and the merry
pealing of the bells in the church steeples. Because she could not go
near all these wonderful things, she longed for them all the more.

Oh, how eagerly did the youngest sister listen to all these
descriptions! And afterwards, when she stood at the open window looking
up through the dark-blue water, she thought of the great city, with all
its bustle and noise, and even fancied she could hear the sound of the
church bells down in the depths of the sea.

In another year the second sister received permission to rise to the
surface of the water and to swim about where she pleased. She rose just
as the sun was setting, and this, she said, was the most beautiful sight
of all. The whole sky looked like gold, and violet a