The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-06-20
Thr LlTTIT f1EenAlD THOUGHT IT VAS TINE 6ORT AND 9wt1 ARoVno JoYouslY


I nothing as foam, wind-driven on the rest | less surface of the sea.
 That same evening the bride and the l bridegroom went on board of the splendid ship. The cannon roared, the banners l flew and in the very middle of the deck there stood a royal tent of purple and gold with sumptuous couches for the rest of the bridal pair during the quiet. cool night.
 The sails swelled in the kindly night breeze and the ship gilded smoothly and steadily over the sea.
 : The sailors lighted gayly colored lanterns and danced on deck to merry music. The little mermaid thought of the first time she rose to the surface of the sea and saw the same splendor and merriment. She joined in the dance and whirled around and around, fitting swiftly as swallows do when they are pursued.
 Everybody applauded her. Never had she danced so lightly and so wondrously. Her tender feet were pierced by the cruel pains but her tender heart was suffering from a pain far more terrible.
 It was the last time she would look on
 
 her home It was the last time she would see him for whom she had given up her turing, glorious voice, for whom she had suffered infinite agonies at every step each day It was the last night she would I breathe the same air as he and see the deep sea and the starlt sky.
 An eternal night without thought or dreams awaited her, for she had no soul and she could not gain one. Yet she laughed and danced and gazed at the Prince whom she had lost. It was far beyond midnight before the reiocings and the merriment ceased aboard the ship. The Prince kissed his lovely bride and she played with his black locks, and arm in arm they went into the magnificent tent.
 Then everything became quiet on the vessel. Only the steersman standing at the helm was awake. The little mermaid , laid her white arms on the gunwale and gazed with fear toward the east, awaiting the first flash of morning. The first ray of the sun. she knew, would be her death.
 Suddenly the waters became disturbed. She looked, and saw her sisters rising from the sea. They were as pale as she, and their long, beautiful hair, that once waved so radiantly in the wind and shone like gold in the sun, had been cut off. We have given it to- the sea witch that she might help you, that you may not die this night. She has given us a knife. Here 1t is See how sharp it is! Before the sun rises you must plunge 1t into the Princes breast. When his warm blood touches your feet. they will grow together
 into fshs tail, and you will become mermaid again, and can go down with us into the sea and live your 300 years be- fore you become the dead salt froth on the sea. Make haste He or you must die before the sun rises. Our old grand mother Is mourning so much for you that her white hair has fallen off. just as ours fell under the scissors of the witch. Kill the Prince and come back with us, Make haste, oh, make haste! Do you not see the red streak in the sky? In few minutes the sun will rise and then you must del"
 The sisters walled like a wailing wind and vanished in the waves.
 The little mermaid drew back the purple curtain of the tent and saw the beautiful bride asleep with her head resting on the Princes breast. She bent down. kissed him on his brave. calm forehead, and looked at the sky where the gleam of morning was growing bright and brighter
 She looked at the sharp knife and then she fixed her eyes again on the Prince. At that moment he whispered the name Of his bride in his dream.