and floated upward, singing as they
rose all about her, from corals and shells and grasses and sponges and
fishes, came this one song, each singing it to his own air, yet the
whole melody rising and sinking in a single harmonious strain.

Effie looked on at every thing in wonder, and at last they came back to
the Queen's presence. She, too, was singing with her maidens; but when
the procession came in again, and went through their bows once more, she
said to the little sea-green man--and their voices were all hushed:

"My faithful servant, have you shown the little maiden all the wonders
of the palace?"

"Yea, my good-loving Queen."

"And do they all spend their lives in good-working, singing as they
work?"

"Yea, my good-loving Queen, all;" and the hum of the song rose all about
her.

"Then back again lead the little child, and carry her to her home on
earth, that she too may live and work and sing. For

Every one _there_ has his part:
Has his work to do, has his love to give,"--

And all the voices sang with her

"Thus we work, thus we love ever while we live."

Then the procession moved out again, and Effie clung still to the little
man's seal-skin cap, as she sat on her cushion of sea-weed, upon the
hump on his back; and he marched along, using his flat hands like oars,
while the gruff old constable with his sword, and the dolphins and the
fishes, great and small, moved beside the pair, and they all went
swiftly up from the light to the darker green, the voices growing
fainter to Effie, and their forms more indistinct.

The little sea-green man brought Effie out of the water, and set her
down on the beach, and then, making his profoundest bow, he walked off
to the water again, the ends of his seal-skin cap dangling and bobbing
behind. Effie watched him go under the water, and then walked up into
the house. There was her mother frying some fish which Father Gilder had
just brought home for supper, while he was chopping wood at the side of
the house. It was not a bit like the beautiful palace she had seen, with
the Queen of the Ocean Deeps, and her maidens about her, weaving and
singing songs. Effie wished the little sea-green man had never brought
her up again, but had let her always live in such a beautiful place.

"What's the matter, Effie?" asked her mother, looking up from the
frying-pan, and seeing Effie stand there, staring into the fire.

"Oh, mother!" said she, "I have seen such