“Cleanliness is a good thing,”said she,scouring the vessel with snakes,which she had tied together in a large knot;then she pricked herself in the breast,and let the black blood drop into it.The steam that rose formed itself into such horrible shapes that no one could look at them without fear.Every moment the witch threw something else into the vessel,and when it began to boil,the sound was like the weeping of a crocodile.When at last the magic draught was 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 she became dumb,and would never again speak or sing.“If the polypi should seize hold of you as you return through the wood,”said the witch,“throw over them a few drops of the potion,and their fingers will be torn into a thousand pieces.”But the little mermaid had no occasion to do this,for the polypi sprang back in terror when they caught sight of the glittering draught,which shone in her hand like a twinkling star.
So she passed quickly through the wood and the marsh,and between the rushing whirlpools.She saw that in her father's palace the torches in the ballroom were extinguished,and all within asleep;but she did not venture to go in to them,for now she was dumb and 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 of each of her sisters,kissed her hand a thousand times towards the palace,and then rose up through the dark blue waters.The sun had not risen when she came in sight of the prince's palace,and approached the beautiful marble steps,but the moon shone clear and bright.Then the little mermaid drank the magic draught,and it seemed as if a two-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 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.
