Full text: Tales and fairy stories

THE LITTLE MERMAID. 151 
tent, and beheld the fair bride resting her head on the 
prince’s breast; and she bent down and kissed his 
beautiful forehead, then looked up at the heavens where 
the rosy dawn grew brighter and brighter—then gazed 
on the sharp knife, and again turned her eyes towards 
the prince, who was calling his bride by her name, in 
his sleep. She alone filled his thoughts, and the mer- 
maid’s fingers clutched the knife instinctively—but in 
another moment she hurled the blade far away into 
the waves, that gleamed redly where it fell, as though 
drops of blood were gurgling up from the water. She 
gave the prince one last, dying look, and then jumped 
overboard, and felt her body dissolving into foam. 
The sun now rose out of the sea; its beams threw a 
kindly warmth upon the cold foam, and the little mer- 
maid did not experience the pangs of death. She saw 
the bright sun, and above were floating hundreds of 
transparent, beautiful creatures; she could still catch 
a glimpse of the ship’s white sails, and of the red clouds 
in the sky, across the swarms of these lovely beings. 
Their language was melody, but too ethereal to be 
heard by human ears, just as no human eye can discern 
their forms. Though without wings, their lightness 
poises them in the air. The little mermaid saw that 
she had a body like theirs, that kept rising higher and 
higher from out the foam. 
~ “ Where am I?” asked she, and her voice sounded 
like that of her companions, so ethereal, that no earthly 
music could give an adequate idea of its sweetness. 
“ Amongst the daughters of the air!” answered 
they. ¢“ A" mermaid has not an immortal soul, and 
cannot obtain one, unless she wins the love of some 
human being—her eternal welfare depends on the will 
of another. “But the daughters of the air, although 
not possessing an immortal soul by nature, can obtain 
one by their good deeds. We fly to warm countries, 
and fan the burning atmosphere, laden with pestilence, 
that destroys the sons of man. We diffuse the per- 
tume of flowers through the air to heal and to refresh.
	        
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