l!" Their chatter finally reaching her consciousness, Senta
turns to them, annoyed. "Oh, keep still! Stop your silly laughing!
Do you wish to make me really cross?" Further to tease her, they
drown her voice with the refrain of their spinning-song: "Mutter
and hum, good little wheel, cheerily, cheerily turn! Spin, spin a
thousand threads, good little wheel, mutter and hum!"--"Do stop that
foolish song," begs Senta, "my ears are dazed with your muttering
and humming. If you wish me to attend, find something better to
do!"--"Very well," say the girls, "then sing yourself!" As a bird
to the nest, Senta returns to the subject engrossing her mind.
"Hear what I suggest: let Mary sing us the ballad." All understand
what ballad is meant. "God forbid!" cries the nurse; "It is likely
I will do it! Children, let the Flying Dutchman rest!"--"Yet how
often have I heard the ballad from you!" sighs Senta; and, as the
nurse continues obdurate, "I will sing it myself," she decides,
"and do you girls listen. Could I but bring home to your hearts
the wretchedness of the poor soul's fate, it could not fail to
move you to compassion!" The girls accept the offer with delight,
push aside their spinning-wheels and gather around the singer.
Only the old nurse, whose instinct has somehow caught alarm, and
who has conceived a curious dislike and fear of this pallid hero
of legend, refuses her countenance and testily goes on spinning
by herself in the chimney-corner.

"Have you met the ship on the seas," sings Senta, "blood-red of
sail and black of mast? Upon the high deck, the pale man, the ship's
master, keeps incessant watch.--Hui! How the wind blows! Yohohey!--Hui!
How it sings in the stays! Yohohey!--Hui! Like an arrow flies the
ship, without stop, without rest! Yet might deliverance one day
come to the pale man, could he find a woman upon earth who should
love him faithfully until death. Oh, when, pale sea-farer, when
shall you find her? Pray to Heaven that a woman soon may keep her
troth to him!

"With contrary wind, in the rage of the storm, he determined to
double a cape. He cursed and swore in mad mood: 'Not to all eternity
will I desist!'--Hui! And Satan heard it. Yohohey!--Hui! Took him
at his word. Yohohey!--Hui! And now, a lost soul, he sails the
seas, without stop, without rest. How the unhappy man, however,
might find deliverance upon earth, an angel of the Lord showed
him,--how he might earn eventual salvation. Oh, that you mig