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When the sun arose and shone over the sea, she recovered, and felt
a sharp pain; but just before her stood the handsome young prince. He
fixed his coal-black eyes upon her so earnestly that she cast down her
own, and then became aware that her fish's tail was gone, and that she
had as pretty a pair of white legs and tiny feet as any little maiden could
have; but she had no clothes, so she wrapped herself in her long, thick
hair. The prince asked her who she was, and where she came from, and
she looked at him mildly and sorrowfully with her deep blue eyes; but
she could not speak. Every step she took was as the witch had said it
would be, she felt as if treading upon the points of needles or sharp
knives; but she bore it willingly, and stepped as lightly by the prince's
side as a soap-bubble, so that he and all who saw her wondered at her
graceful-swaying movements. She was very soon arrayed in costly
robes of silk and muslin, and was the most beautiful creature in the
palace; but she was dumb, and could neither speak nor sing.
Beautiful female slaves, dressed in silk and gold, stepped forward
and sang before the prince and his royal parents: one sang better than
all the others, and the prince clapped his hands and smiled at her. This
was great sorrow to the little mermaid; she knew how much more
sweetly she herself could sing once, and she thought, “Oh if he could
only know that! I have given away my voice forever, to be with him.”
The slaves next performed some pretty fairy-like dances, to the
sound of beautiful music. Then the little mermaid raised her lovely white
arms, stood on the tips of her toes, and glided over the floor, and
danced as no one yet had been able to dance. At each moment her
beauty became more revealed, and her expressive eyes appealed more
directly to the heart than the songs of the slaves. Every one was
enchanted, especially the prince, who called her his little foundling; and
she danced again quite readily, to please him, though each time her
foot touched the floor it seemed as if she trod on sharp knives.
The prince said she should remain with him always, and she received
permission to sleep at his door, on a velvet cushion. He had a page's
dress made for her, that she might accompany him on horseback. They
rode together through the sweet-scented woods, where the green
boughs touched their shoulders, and the little birds sang among the
fresh leaves. She climbed with the prince to the tops of high mountains;
and although her tender feet bled so that even her steps were marked,
she only laughed, and followed him till they could see the clouds
beneath them looking like a flock of birds travelling to distant lands.
While at the prince's palace, and when all the household were asleep,
she would go and sit on the broad marble steps; for it eased her
burning feet to bathe them in the cold sea-water; and then she thought
of all those below in the deep.
Once during the night her sisters came up arm-in-arm, singing
sorrowfully, as they floated on the water. She beckoned to them, and
then they recognized her, and told her how she had grieved them. After
that, they came to the same place every night; and once she saw in the
distance her old grandmother, who had not been to the surface of the
sea for many years, and the old Sea King, her father, with his crown on
his head. They stretched out their hands towards her, but they did not
venture so near the land as her sisters did.
As the days passed, she loved the prince more fondly, and he loved
her as he would love a little child, but it never came into his head to
make her his wife; yet, unless he married her, she could not receive an
immortal soul; and, on the morning after his marriage with another, she
would dissolve into the foam of the sea.
“Do you not love me the best of them all?” the eyes of the little
mermaid seemed to say, when he took her in his arms, and kissed her
fair forehead.
“Yes, you are dear to me,” said the prince; “for you have the best
heart, and you are the most devoted to me; you are like a young
maiden whom I once saw, but whom I shall never meet again. I was in
a ship that was wrecked, and the waves cast me ashore near a holy
temple, where several young maidens performed the service. The
youngest of them 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 are like her, and you have almost driven her image out of my mind.
She belongs to the holy temple, and my good fortune has sent you to
me instead of her; and we will never part.”
“Ah, he knows not that it was I who saved his life,” thought the little
mermaid. “I carried him over the sea to the wood where the temple
stands: I sat beneath the foam, and watched till the human beings
came to help him. I saw the pretty maiden that he loves better than he
loves me;” and the mermaid sighed deeply, but she could not shed
tears. “He says the maiden belongs to the holy temple, therefore she
will never return to the world. They will meet no more: while I am by his
side, and see him every day. I will take care 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 the
beautiful daughter of a neighboring king would be his wife, for a fine
ship was being fitted out. Although the prince gave out that he merely
intended to pay a visit to the king, it was generally supposed that he
really went to see his daughter. A great company were to go with him.
The little mermaid smiled, and shook her head. She knew the prince's
thoughts better than any of the others.
“I must travel,” he had said to her; “I must see this beautiful
princess; my parents desire it; but they will not oblige me to bring her
home as my bride. I cannot love her; she is not like the beautiful maiden
in the temple, whom you resemble. If I were forced to choose a bride, I
would rather choose you, my dumb foundling, with those expressive
eyes.” And then he kissed her rosy mouth, played with her long waving
hair, and laid his head on her heart, while she dreamed of human
happiness and an immortal soul. “You are not afraid of the sea, my
dumb child,” said he, as they stood on the deck of the noble ship 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 the deep beneath
them, and of what the divers had seen there; and she smiled at his
descriptions, for she knew better than any one what wonders were at
the bottom of the sea.
In the moonlight, when all on board were asleep, excepting the man
at the helm, who was steering, she sat on the deck, gazing down
through the clear water. She thought she could distinguish her father's
castle, and upon it her aged grandmother, with the silver crown on her
head, looking through the rushing tide at the keel of the vessel. Then
her sisters came up on the waves, and gazed at her mournfully,
wringing their white hands. She beckoned to them, and smiled, and
wanted to tell them how happy and well off she was; but the cabin-boy
approached, and when her sisters dived down he thought it was only
the foam of the sea which he saw.
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