hom you resemble. If I were forced to
choose a bride, I would choose you, my dumb foundling, with those
expressive eyes." Then he kissed her rosy mouth, played with her long,
waving hair, and laid his head on her heart, while she dreamed of human
happiness and an immortal soul.

"You are not afraid of the sea, my dumb child, are you?" he said, as
they stood on the deck of the noble ship which was to carry them to the
country of the neighboring king. Then he told her of storm and of calm,
of strange fishes in the deep beneath them, and of what the divers had
seen there. She smiled at his descriptions, for she knew better than
any one what wonders were at the bottom of the sea.

In the moonlight night, when all on board were asleep except the man at
the helm, she sat on deck, gazing down through the clear water. She
thought she could distinguish her father's castle, and upon it her aged
grandmother, with the silver crown on her head, looking through the
rushing tide at the keel of the vessel. Then her sisters came up on the
waves and gazed at her mournfully, wringing their white hands. She
beckoned to them, and smiled, and wanted to tell them how happy and well
off she was. But the cabin boy approached, and when her sisters dived
down, he thought what he saw was only the foam of the sea.

The next morning the ship sailed into the harbor of a beautiful town
belonging to the king whom the prince was going to visit. The church
bells were ringing, and from the high towers sounded a flourish of
trumpets. Soldiers, with flying colors and glittering bayonets, lined
the roads through which they passed. Every day was a festival, balls and
entertainments following one another. But the princess had not yet
appeared. People said that she had been brought up and educated in a
religious house, where she was learning every royal virtue.

At last she came. Then the little mermaid, who was anxious to see
whether she was really beautiful, was obliged to admit that she had
never seen a more perfect vision of beauty. Her skin was delicately
fair, and beneath her long, dark eyelashes her laughing blue eyes shone
with truth and purity.

"It was you," said the prince, "who saved my life when I lay as if dead
on the beach," and he folded his blushing bride in his arms.

"Oh, I am too happy!" said he to the little mermaid; "my fondest hopes
are now fulfilled. You will rejoice at my happiness, for your devotion
to me is great and sincere."