1°
X,
ANDERSEN'S TALES.
sort of body; and especially as regards the care ghe
took of the little princesses her grand-daughters. They
were six pretty children; but the youngest was the
prettiest of all.” Her skin was as clear and delicate ag
a rose leaf, and her eyes as blue as the deepest sea;
but she had no feet any more than the others, and her
hody ended in a fish’s tail.
They were free to play about all day long in the
vast rooms of the palace below water, where live
flowers grew upon the walls. The large amber win.
dows were opened, when the fishes would swim inwards
to them just as the swallows fly into our houses when
we open the windows; only the fishes swam right up to
the princesses, ate out of their hands, and allowed
themselves to be stroked.
In front of the palace was a large garden with bright
red and dark blue trees, whose fruit glittered like gold,
and whose blossoms were like fiery sparks, as both
stalks and leaves kept rustling continually. The ground
was strewed with the most delicate sand, but blue as
the flames of sulphur. The whole atmosphere was of
a peculiar blue tint that would have led you to believe
you were hovering high up in the air, with clouds
above and below you, rather than standing at the
bottom of the sea. When the winds were calm, the
sun was visible; and to those below it looked like a
scarlet flower shedding light from its calyx.
Each of the little princesses had a plot of ground
in the garden where she might dig and plant as
she pleased. One sowed her flowers so as to come
up in the shape of a whale; another preferred the
figure of a little mermaid; but the youngest planted
hers in a circle to imitate the sun, and chose flowers as
ted as the sun appeared to her. She was a singular
child, both silent and thoughtful ; and while her sisters
were delighted with all the strange things that they
obtained through the wrecks of various ships, she had
never claimed anything—with the exception of the red
Howers tnat resembled the sun above—but a pretty
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