Then the witch placed her cauldron on the fire, to prepare themagic draught.
“Cleanliness is a good thing,” said she, scouring the vesselwith snakes, which she had tied together in a large knot; then shepricked herself in the breast, and let the black blood drop into it.The steam that rose formed itself into such horrible shapes that noone could look at them without fear. Every moment the witch threwsomething else into the vessel, and when it began to boil, the soundwas like the weeping of a crocodile. When at last the magic draughtwas ready, it looked like the clearest water. “There it is for you,”said the witch. Then she cut off the mermaid’s tongue, so that shebecame dumb, and would never again speak or sing. “If the polypishould seize hold of you as you return through the wood,” said thewitch, “throw over them a few drops of the potion, and their fingerswill be torn into a thousand pieces.” But the little mermaid had nooccasion to do this, for the polypi sprang back in terror when theycaught sight of the glittering draught, which shone in her hand like atwinkling star.
So she passed quickly through the wood and the marsh, andbetween the rushing whirlpools. She saw that in her father’s palacethe torches in the ballroom were extinguished, and all withinasleep; but she did not venture to go in to them, for now she was dumband going to leave them forever, she felt as if her heart would break.She stole into the garden, took a flower from the flower-beds ofeach of her sisters, kissed her hand a thousand times towards thepalace, and then rose up through the dark blue waters. The sun had notrisen when she came in sight of the prince’s palace, and approachedthe beautiful marble steps, but the moon shone clear and bright.Then the little mermaid drank the magic draught, and it seemed as if atwo-edged sword went through her delicate body: she fell into a swoon,and lay like one dead. When the sun arose and shone over the sea,she recovered, and felt a sharp pain; but just before her stood thehandsome young prince. He fixed his coal-black eyes upon her soearnestly that she cast down her own, and then became aware that herfish’s tail was gone, and that she had as pretty a pair of whitelegs and tiny feet as any little maiden could have; but she had noclothes, so she wrapped herself in her long, thick hair. The princeasked her who she was, and where she came from, and she looked athim mildly and sorrowfully with her deep blue eyes; but she couldnot speak. Every step she took was as the witch had said it wouldbe, she felt as if treading upon the points of needles or sharpknives; but she bore it willingly, and stepped as lightly by theprince’s side as a soap-bubble, so that he and all who saw herwondered at her graceful-swaying movements. She was very soonarrayed in costly robes of silk and muslin, and was the most beautifulcreature in the palace; but she was dumb, and could neither speaknor sing.
Beautiful female slaves, dressed in silk and gold, stepped forwardand sang before the prince and his royal parents: one sang better thanall the others,ugg usa, and the prince clapped his hands and smiled at her.This was great sorrow to the little mermaid; she knew how much moresweetly she herself could sing once, and she thought, “Oh if hecould only know that! I have given away my voice forever, to be withhim.”
The slaves next performed some pretty fairy-like dances, to thesound of beautiful music. Then the little mermaid raised her lovelywhite arms, stood on the tips of her toes, and glided over thefloor, and danced as no one yet had been able to dance. At each momenther beauty became more revealed, and her expressive eyes appealed moredirectly to the heart than the songs of the slaves. Every one wasenchanted, especially the prince, who called her his little foundling;and she danced again quite readily, to please him, though each timeher foot touched the floor it seemed as if she trod on sharp knives.”
The prince said she should remain with him always, and shereceived permission to sleep at his door, on a velvet cushion. Hehad a page’s dress made for her, that she might accompany him onhorseback. They rode together through the sweet-scented woods, wherethe green boughs touched their shoulders, and the little birds sangamong the fresh leaves. She climbed with the prince to the tops ofhigh mountains; and although her tender feet bled so that even hersteps were marked, she only laughed, and followed him till theycould see the clouds beneath them looking like a flock of birdstravelling to distant lands. While at the prince’s palace, and whenall the household were asleep, she would go and sit on the broadmarble steps; for it eased her burning feet to bathe them in thecold sea-water,Sale UGG Boots; and then she thought of all those below in the deep.
Once during the night her sisters came up arm-in-arm, singingsorrowfully, as they floated on the water. She beckoned to them, andthen they recognized her, and told her how she had grieved them. Afterthat, they came to the same place every night; and once she saw in thedistance her old grandmother, who had not been to the surface of thesea for many years, and the old Sea King, her father, with his crownon his head. They stretched out their hands towards her, but theydid not venture so near the land as her sisters did.
As the days passed, she loved the prince more fondly, and he lovedher as he would love a little child, but it never came into his headto make her his wife; yet, unless he married her, she could notreceive an immortal soul; and, on the morning after his marriagewith another, she would dissolve into the foam of the sea.
“Do you not love me the best of them all?” the eyes of thelittle mermaid seemed to say, when he took her in his arms, and kissedher fair forehead.
“Yes, you are dear to me,” said the prince; “for you have the bestheart, and you are the most devoted to me; you are like a young maidenwhom I once saw, but whom I shall never meet again. I was in a shipthat was wrecked, and the waves cast me ashore near a holy temple,where several young maidens performed the service. The youngest ofthem found me on the shore, and saved my life. I saw her but twice,and she is the only one in the world whom I could love; but you arelike her, and you have almost driven her image out of my mind. Shebelongs to the holy temple, and my good fortune has sent you to meinstead of her; and we will never part.”
“Ah, he knows not that it was I who saved his life,” thought thelittle mermaid. “I carried him over the sea to the wood where thetemple stands: I sat beneath the foam, and watched till the humanbeings came to help him. I saw the pretty maiden that he lovesbetter than he loves me;” and the mermaid sighed deeply, but she couldnot shed tears. “He says the maiden belongs to the holy temple,therefore she will never return to the world. They will meet nomore: while I am by his side, and see him every day. I will takecare of him, and love him, and give up my life for his sake.”
Very soon it was said that the prince must marry, and that thebeautiful daughter of a neighboring king would be his wife, for a fineship was being fitted out. Although the prince gave out that he merelyintended to pay a visit to the king, it was generally supposed that hereally went to see his daughter. A great company were to go withhim. The little mermaid smiled, and shook her head. She knew theprince’s thoughts better than any of the others.
“I must travel,” he had said to her; “I must see this beautifulprincess; my parents desire it; but they will not oblige me to bringher home as my bride. I cannot love her; she is not like the beautifulmaiden in the temple, whom you resemble. If I were forced to choosea bride, I would rather choose you, my dumb foundling, with thoseexpressive eyes.” And then he kissed her rosy mouth, played with herlong waving hair, and laid his head on her heart, while she dreamed ofhuman happiness and an immortal soul. “You are not afraid of thesea, my dumb child,” said he, as they stood on the deck of the nobleship which was to carry them to the country of the neighboring king.And then he told her of storm and of calm, of strange fishes in thedeep beneath them, and of what the divers had seen there; and shesmiled at his descriptions, for she knew better than any one whatwonders were at the bottom of the sea.
In the moonlight, when all on board were asleep, excepting the manat the helm, who was steering, she sat on the deck, gazing downthrough the clear water. She thought she could distinguish herfather’s castle, and upon it her aged grandmother, with the silvercrown on her head, looking through the rushing tide at the keel of thevessel. Then her sisters came up on the waves, and gazed at hermournfully, wringing their white hands. She beckoned to them, andsmiled, and wanted to tell them how happy and well off she was; butthe cabin-boy approached, and when her sisters dived down he thoughtit was only the foam of the sea which he saw.
The next morning the ship sailed into the harbor of a beautifultown belonging to the king whom the prince was going to visit. Thechurch bells were ringing, and from the high towers sounded a flourishof trumpets; and soldiers, with flying colors and glittering bayonets,lined the rocks through which they passed. Every day was a festival;balls and entertainments followed one another.
But the princess had not yet appeared. People said that she wasbeing brought up and educated in a religious house, where she waslearning every royal virtue. At last she came. Then the littlemermaid, who was very anxious to see whether she was really beautiful,was obliged to acknowledge that she had never seen a more perfectvision of beauty. Her skin was delicately fair, and beneath her longdark eye-lashes her laughing blue eyes shone with truth and purity.
“It was you,” said the prince, “who saved my life when I laydead on the beach,” and he folded his blushing bride in his arms. “Oh,I am too happy,” said he to the little mermaid; “my fondest hopesare all fulfilled. You will rejoice at my happiness; for your devotionto me is great and sincere.”
The little mermaid kissed his hand, and felt as if her heartwere already broken. His wedding morning would bring death to her, andshe would change into the foam of the sea. All the church bellsrung, and the heralds rode about the town proclaiming the betrothal.Perfumed oil was burning in costly silver lamps on every altar. Thepriests waved the censers, while the bride and bridegroom joined theirhands and received the blessing of the bishop. The little mermaid,dressed in silk and gold, held up the bride’s train,ugg short boots; but her earsheard nothing of the festive music, and her eyes saw not the holyceremony; she thought of the night of death which was coming to her,and of all she had lost in the world. On the same evening the brideand bridegroom went on board ship; cannons were roaring, flags waving,and in the centre of the ship a costly tent of purple and gold hadbeen erected. It contained elegant couches, for the reception of thebridal pair during the night. The ship, with swelling sails and afavorable wind, glided away smoothly and lightly over the calm sea.When it grew dark a number of colored lamps were lit, and thesailors danced merrily on the deck. The little mermaid could nothelp thinking of her first rising out of the sea, when she had seensimilar festivities and joys; and she joined in the dance, poisedherself in the air as a swallow when he pursues his prey, and allpresent cheered her with wonder. She had never danced so elegantlybefore. Her tender feet felt as if cut with sharp knives, but shecared not for it; a sharper pang had pierced through her heart. Sheknew this was the last evening she should ever see the prince, forwhom she had forsaken her kindred and her home; she had given up herbeautiful voice, and suffered unheard-of pain daily for him, whilehe knew nothing of it. This was the last evening that she wouldbreathe the same air with him, or gaze on the starry sky and thedeep sea; an eternal night, without a thought or a dream, awaited her:she had no soul and now she could never win one. All was joy andgayety on board ship till long after midnight; she laughed anddanced with the rest, while the thoughts of death were in her heart.The prince kissed his beautiful bride, while she played with his ravenhair, till they went arm-in-arm to rest in the splendid tent. Then allbecame still on board the ship; the helmsman, alone awake, stood atthe helm. The little mermaid leaned her white arms on the edge ofthe vessel, and looked towards the east for the first blush ofmorning, for that first ray of dawn that would bring her death. Shesaw her sisters rising out of the flood: they were as pale as herself;but their long beautiful hair waved no more in the wind, and hadbeen cut off.
“We have given our hair to the witch,” said they, “to obtainhelp for you, that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife:here it is, see it is very sharp. Before the sun rises you must plungeit into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon yourfeet they will grow together again, and form into a fish’s tail, andyou will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out yourthree hundred years before you die and change into the salt seafoam. Haste, then; he or you must die before sunrise. Our oldgrandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling offfrom sorrow, as ours fell under the witch’s scissors. Kill theprince and come back; hasten: do you not see the first red streaksin the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and you must die.” Andthen they sighed deeply and mournfully, and sank down beneath thewaves.
The little mermaid drew back the crimson curtain of the tent,and beheld the fair bride with her head resting on the prince’sbreast. She bent down and kissed his fair brow, then looked at the skyon which the rosy dawn grew brighter and brighter; then she glanced atthe sharp knife, and again fixed her eyes on the prince, who whisperedthe name of his bride in his dreams. She was in his thoughts, andthe knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid: then she flungit far away from her into the waves; the water turned red where itfell, and the drops that spurted up looked like blood. She cast onemore lingering, half-fainting glance at the prince, and then threwherself from the ship into the sea, and thought her body wasdissolving into foam. The sun rose above the waves, and his warmrays fell on the cold foam of the little mermaid, who did not feelas if she were dying. She saw the bright sun, and all around herfloated hundreds of transparent beautiful beings; she could seethrough them the white sails of the ship, and the red clouds in thesky; their speech was melodious, but too ethereal to be heard bymortal ears, as they were also unseen by mortal eyes. The littlemermaid perceived that she had a body like theirs, and that shecontinued to rise higher and higher out of the foam. “Where am I?”asked she, and her voice sounded ethereal, as the voice of those whowere with her; no earthly music could imitate it.
“Among the daughters of the air,” answered one of them. “A mermaidhas not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins thelove of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternaldestiny. But the daughters of the air, although they do not possess animmortal soul, can, by their good deeds, procure one for themselves.We fly to warm countries, and cool the sultry air that destroysmankind with the pestilence. We carry the perfume of the flowers tospread health and restoration. After we have striven for three hundredyears to all the good in our power, we receive an immortal soul andtake part in the happiness of mankind. You, poor little mermaid,have tried with your whole heart to do as we are doing; you havesuffered and endured and raised yourself to the spirit-world by yourgood deeds; and now, by striving for three hundred years in the sameway, you may obtain an immortal soul.”
The little mermaid lifted her glorified eyes towards the sun,and felt them, for the first time, filling with tears. On the ship, inwhich she had left the prince, there were life and noise; she sawhim and his beautiful bride searching for her; sorrowfully theygazed at the pearly foam, as if they knew she had thrown herselfinto the waves. Unseen she kissed the forehead of her bride, andfanned the prince, and then mounted with the other children of the airto a rosy cloud that floated through the aether.
“After three hundred years, thus shall we float into the kingdomof heaven,” said she. “And we may even get there sooner,” whisperedone of her companions. “Unseen we can enter the houses of men, wherethere are children, and for every day on which we find a good child,who is the joy of his parents and deserves their love, our time ofprobation is shortened. The child does not know, when we fly throughthe room, that we smile with joy at his good conduct, for we can countone year less of our three hundred years. But when we see a naughty ora wicked child, we shed tears of sorrow, and for every tear a day isadded to our time of trial!”
THE END.
1872
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