The Mermaid

ity to lose his life, and by that means find it. Such an hour came now to Caius. The losing and finding of life is accomplished in many ways: the f

the gray moss that hung from trunk and branch, tossing the emerald ferns that grew in the moss at the roots, and out again into light to catch the silver down of thistles that grew by the red

to meditation, a habit which is frequently a mere sign of mental fallowness; now that his mind was wearied with the accumulation of a little learning, it knew what work meant, and did not work except when compelled. Caius walked upon the red road bordered by fir hedges and weeds, amongst which blue and yellow asters were beg

soft rock. A glance was enough for an object for which he had little respect, and he sat down with his back to it on one of the smaller rocks of the beach. This was the only place on the shore where

atch. The summer afternoon was all aglow upon shore and sea. He had sat quite still for a good while, when, near the sunny island, just at the point where he

No, he knew well that neither the one nor the other had any such habit as this lazy basking in sunny shallows. Then the head that was lying backwards on the wat

erk or splash, but a fish-like dart toward the open sea. Then came another turn of the head, as if to make sure that he was indeed the man that he seeme

stood more absolutely still, nor gazed more intently. The spell lasted long: some three or four minutes he stood, watching the place with almost un

It was three years since the old man had seen the same apparition; how much might three years stand for in the life of a mermaid? Then, when such question

she was still, and then the perfect arm which he had seen before was again raised in the air, and this time it beckoned to him. Once, twice, thrice h

it possible that any woman could be bathing from the isl

her body or effort; then paused; then came forward again, until she had rounded the island at its nearest point, and half-way between it and his shore she stopped, and looked

tention of swimming the narrow sea in answer to the beckoning hand. Yet his whole mind was thrown into confusion with the strangeness of i

ad that lay so comfortably on the ripple was the head of a laughing child or playful girl. A crown of green seaweed was on the dripping curls; the arms playing idly upon the surface were round, dimpled, and exquisitely white. The dark brownish body he could hardly now see; it was foreshortened to his sight, down slanting deep

e as a mermaid could exist. The big dark eyes of the girlish face opened wide and looked at him, th

ing at the stable shore. His eye stayed on the epitaph of the lost child. He remembered soberly all that he knew about this dead child, and then a sudden flash of perception seemed to come to him. This sweet water-nymph, on whom for the

nd there she was, smiling at him, and Caius saw in the dark eyes a likeness to the long-remembered eyes of the child, and thought he still

nd near the water as he might have done h

come," he called sof

nymph blinked at him t

u," urged Caius, helpless to d

y, as if to make it by t

to a colt of which he was fond; but when a look of undoubted derision came over th

in our assumption that they never criticise. Caius before this had always supposed himself happy in his little efforts to please children and animals; now he knew himsel

uring the beauty of the sprite in the water as greedily as he might with

e asked, throwing his

ind him. Caius, turning, knew it to be the epitaph. Yes, that wa

ssibility. Yet that the mermaid was the lost child he had now little doubt, excep

ave him a little wave of her hand as if to say good-bye, and began to rec

d Caius, much urg

ntinued, and no answer came but

er. Then suddenly it seemed to him that the cliff had eyes, and that it might be told

higher out of the water, and again he saw, o

back and beckoned, and darted forward again; and, doing

t-certainly not in his clothes. "There was something so wonderfully human about her face," he mused to himself. His mind sugg

ad, lower now, looked in the water at a distance as like the muzzle of a seal or dog as like a human head. By cha