n were bright, and a queer, pale green
light pierced through the hall from a kind of fountain of light in the
centre of the floor under the dome. Approaching this shining fountain,
the sailor discovered it to be a mass of glowing sea-creatures, living
flowers of the deep, which, even as he looked, stirred their mysterious
petals.

"Welcome, Wearer of the Enchanted Ring," said the King, staring hard at
the sailor with his large golden eyes. "You come at a fortunate time.
This very evening we celebrate the wedding of the second of my three
daughters with the mortal wearer of the second ring. Stand you upon the
steps of the throne, for they are coming at once. Let the trumpets
sound!"

At this command, two youths of the sea lifted huge conch-shells to their
mouths and sounded them.

Great doors instantly opened wide, and a gorgeous procession entered.
First, appeared a dozen pages; then, in walked the Sea King's second
daughter, hand in hand with a merry young man, in whom the sailor
recognized his second oldest brother.

Presently the conch-shells sounded again.

"The Prince and the Princess!" cried a voice.

The King leaned over from his throne and whispered in the sailor's
ear:--

"My eldest daughter and her husband. They were married just a year ago.
The Prince is a youth of the world above, and wears the first of the
enchanted rings."

Now entered the eldest Princess of the Sea, walking by the side of her
husband. And in the husband the young sailor beheld the elder of his two
brothers. And though the young sailor stretched out his arms to them,
neither of his brothers remembered him, for while faint and hungry, they
had forgotten the warning of the Witch of the Sands and had eaten of the
bread of the under-world. Thus had the memory of the world above, the
lost emerald, and their father's plight faded away.

The conches sounded a third time.

"Come to the wedding banquet," cried the King. "You shall sit beside my
youngest daughter."

And now the sailor lad, willy nilly, was hurried into the banquet hall,
and seated at the royal table beside the King's youngest daughter. And
she was quite the most beautiful of all the three. Noticing that the
youngest son touched no food, she said to him:--

"Why do you refuse to taste of the wedding banquet?"

"Princess," replied the sailor, "I have come to the Under-Waters to seek
the Emerald of the Sea; for if I return to my own country without it, my
father's lif