The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-06-13

to get rid of your pretty fishtail Here is a drink. Take it to the land before the sun rises and drink it. Your tall will part and change into the two stumps that human beings call pretty legs. You will feel as if sharp sword went through you, but every one will say you are the most beautiful human child they ever have seen, You will walk more gracefully than any girl on earth, but with every step you will feel as if you stepped on a dreadful knifes Once changed you never. can become a mermaid again. You never will be able to descend to your sisters or your father. And if you do not win the Princes love so that he forgets his mother and father Tor your sake and cl1ngs to you with all his heart and let's the priest marry you, then you win not receive an immortal soul. The first morning after he has married another your heart will break and you will be- come foam on the water"
 q will do it." said the little mermaid with trembling voice. and turned pale as death.
 But you will have to pay me-" said the sea a-witch. You have the loveliest voice of all down here, and mermaids can enchant any one with their voices; but that voice you must give me- You must infatuate him with your graceful
 
 lovely eyes"
 "So be it." said the little mermaid; and the witch cut off her tongue and made her dumb, so that she could neither speak nor sing
 The witch gave her the draught, and the mermaid passed safely through whirlpools and the polyps drew back in fright when they heheld the magic po tion that shone like sfittering star
 She saw her fathers palace, but she did not venture into 1t, now that she was dumb and going away forever. It scanned as if her little heart would break from sorrow. She swan sadly into the garden and took a sea-fiower from the garden bed of each sister and threw Kisses with her hand toward their win dows. Then she swan swiftly up ward through the dark, blue of the waters
 The sun had mot risen when she reached the marble steps that descend ed to the sea from the Princes palace. but the moon was shining kind and pure. She swan to the strand and drank the strong and fiery draught.
 Instantly she felt as if two-edged sword sprang through her delicate frame with lightning pain. She swoon- ed and lay as one who Is dead.
 When the sun began to flame across the waves she came to herself and felt a great burning torment, but in mo- ment she forgot 1t, because right in front of her stood the young Prince.
 He gazed at her so ardently with his coal-black eyes that she cast down her own and then discovered that her fish's tail had vanished and that she had the prettiest little feet. the whit est and the daintiest that a girl could have.
 The Prince asked her who she was and how she came there, and his voice trembled, for never had man seen so lovely a, creature as he saw now. She looked at him earnestly with her great blue eyes-earnestly and with an im- mense tenderness and sadness, for she could not speak.
 He bent to her and took her little hand. She arose At once it was as the witch had foretold. Each step she made was as if she were treading on the piercing points of dreadful knives and fiercely sharp swords. Each step she made sent a pang as of death through her. But she held the hand of the Prince, and she did not vince.
 Holding the hand of the Prince. she walk ed, lightly as a bubble, until he and all his peope were enchanted by that graceful motion.
 They brought silks and costly stuffs for her and when she was dressed in them everybody marveled at her more than ever, for she was the most beau- tiful of all the maidens there.
 But she was dumb and could not speak or sing. And there were many lovely female slaves who came in dresses of silk and gold and sang be- fore the Prince and his royal parents. And the Prince was charmed and de- lighted by the songs. so that he could not repress his joy, One there was who sang more beautifully than the others. so that he clapped his hands joyously and smiled at her.
 Then the little mermaid became very, very sad. "oh, thought she. eff he could only know that I have given away my voice forever to be near him"