our happy life to an end by thy folly! Thou seest me to-day for
the last time, and must return to thy former condition, and this thou
hast brought upon thyself. Farewell, for the last time."

There was a sudden crash and a tremendous noise, as if the floor was
giving way beneath his feet, and Sleepy Tony was hurled down stunned,
and could not perceive what was happening to himself or about him.

No one knows how long afterwards it may have been when he recovered from
his swoon, and found himself on the sea-shore close to the rock on which
the fair mermaid had sat when she entered into the bond of friendship
with him. Instead of the magnificent robes which he had worn every day
in the dwelling of the mermaid, he found himself dressed in his old
clothes, which were now much older and more ragged than he could
possibly have supposed. Our friend's happy days were over, and no
remorse, however bitter, could bring them back.

He walked on till he reached the first houses of his village. They were
standing in the same places, but yet looked different. But what appeared
to him much more wonderful when he looked round, was that the people
were all strangers, and he did not meet a single face which he knew.

The people all looked strangely at him, too, as though he was a monster.
Sleepy Tony went on to the farm of his parents, but here too he
encountered only strangers, who knew him not, and whom he did not know.
He asked in amazement for his father and brothers, but no one could tell
him anything about them. At length an infirm old man came up, leaning on
a stick, and said, "Peasant, the farmer whom you ask after has been
sleeping in the ground for more than thirty years, and his sons must be
dead too. How comes it, my good old man, that you ask after people who
have been so long forgotten?" The words "old man" took Sleepy Tony so
much aback that he was unable to ask another question. He felt his limbs
trembling, turned his back on the strange people, and went out at the
gate. The expression "old man" left him no peace; it fell upon him with
a crushing weight, and his feet refused him their office.

He hurried to the nearest spring and gazed in the water. The pale sunken
cheeks, the hollow eyes, the long grey beard and grey hair, confirmed
what he had heard. This worn-out, withered form no longer bore the
slightest resemblance to the youth whom the mermaid had chosen as her
consort. Now he fully realised his misery for the f