An Enchanted Garden: Fairy Stories

by Mrs. Molesworth

"but it is a story of thosethat live in the sea. Down, deep down below the waves, all is calm andstill, and there is the country of the mermen. Strange things havehappened before now down there among the sea-folk. Some who have beenthought drowned have been cared for there, and lived their lives longafter those who had known them up above were past and gone. For themer-folk are long-lived; what men count age is to them but youth; theirdays follow each other in a calm that human beings could scarce imagine.They live now in these stirring times as their forbears lived when menand women had their homes in the forests, long before there were housesor towns, or roads, or any of the things which you now think thecommonest necessities.

  "But the sea-folk have their troubles too, sometimes; and my story hasto do with trouble. The Queen--the beautiful Queen of the sea-country--was ill, and the King was in despair. Now I must tell you that theQueen was not quite one of the sea race--so at least it was believed.Her grandmother--or her great-grandmother, maybe--was a maiden of theland, who had fallen into the sea as a little baby, and had been broughtback to life and cared for by the mer-folk; and when she grew up, agreat lord among them loved her for her beauty and made her his bride.She had no memory of her native land, of course; but still there werestrange things about her and her children, and their children again,which told whence they had come.

  "And now that the young Queen was so ill, one of these old feelings hadawakened."

  "I shall die," she said. "I shall surely die unless I can smell thescent of a rose--a deep-red rose, such as the land maidens love. It hascome to me in my dreams. Though I have never seen one, I know what itmust be like, and I feel that life would return--life and strength thatare fast fading away--if I could breathe its exquisite fragrance andbury my face among its soft petals."

  They were amazed to hear her speak thus. The great court physicians atfirst said she was wandering in her mind, and no attention should bepaid to her. But she kept on ever the same entreaty; and the King, wholoved her devotedly, at last could bear it no longer.

  "It all comes of her ancestor having been so foolish as to wed a humanbride," said one of the doctors, feeling in a very bad temper, as theyall were.

  The sea-doctors are not very wise, I fear, because they have so verylittle experience. It happens so rarely that any of the mer-folk fallill. And so, as they had nothing to propose, the most sensible thing todo was to get angry. But the King was not to be so put off.

  "Whatever it comes from," he said, "I am determined that the Queen'swish shall be complied with if it is in any way possible. What is thisthing she is longing for?--what is a rose?"

  The doctors did not know; but seeing that the King was so much inearnest they agreed that they would try to find out. And after a greatdeal of consultation together, and looking up in their learned books,they did find out something. The Queen, meanwhile, soothed by herhusband's promise that all was being done to carry out her entreaty,grew a shade better; at least for some days she did not get any worse,which was always something. And on the fourth day the wise men askedfor an audience of the King in order to tell him what they haddiscovered.

  The King awaited them eagerly.

  "Well," he said, "have you found out what the Queen means by a rose?And if so, how is one to be procured?"

  Yes; they were able to describe pretty well what a rose was; for ofcourse, down below, they are not without gardens and flowers, though ofvery different kinds from ours. But a great difficulty remained. Evenif any one was daring enough to swim up to the surface and venture onland in search of the flower, and even if it was procured, how could itbe brought, alive and fragrant, to the Queen?

  "Why not?" asked the King. For he had never been up to the surface ofthe sea. It is one of the sea-people's laws that their royal folk muststay down below, so he knew nothing of the land or the things that growthere.

  The learned men explained to him that, without air, and exposed to thesalt water of the ocean, a flower of the earth must quickly fade anddie; and as the King listened, his face grew sadder and sadder. Butafter a few moments' silence, one of the doctors spoke again. They werenever in a hurry, you see, and they felt that it added dignity to theirwords to dole them out sparingly.

  "It has occurred to us," he said, "that it might be well to consult thewise woman of the sea--the ancient mermaid who lives in the AnemoneCave. Not that as a rule, the advice of a member of her sex is of muchuse, but the ancient mermaid has lived long and--"

  "Of course! of course!" exclaimed the King, impatiently; "she is thevery person. Why did I not think of her before? Why--the story goesthat she nursed the Queen's human ancestress when, as a baby, she cameamong us."

  "I wish she had stayed away," muttered the wisest of the wise men,though he spoke too low for the King to hear.

  Then the King ordered his chariot and his swiftest steeds--they weredolphins--to be got ready at once, and off he set.

  It was rather a long swim to the Anemone Cave. I wish I could give youany idea of the wonderful things the King passed by on his way--thegroves of coral and forests of great branching seaweeds of all shapesand colour, the strangely formed creatures whom he scarcely glanced at.For of course it was not wonderful to him, and to-day his mind was sofull of his trouble that he would have found it difficult to notice oradmire anything.

  The wise woman of the sea was at home. The King's heart beat fasterthan usual as he was ushered into her presence, not from cowardice, butbecause he was feeling so very anxious about his dearly-loved wife. AndKing though he was, he made as low an obeisance before the ancientmermaid as if he had been one of the humblest of his own subjects.

  She was very strange to behold. Mermaids, as your stories tell you, areoften very beautiful, and possibly this aged lady may have been so inher day, but now she was so very old that she looked like the mummy of amermaid; her hair was like a thin frosting of hoar on a winter morning;her eyes were so deep down in her head that you could scarcely see them;the scales on her tail had lost all their glitter. Still there wassomething dignified about her, and she received the King as if quiteprepared for his visit. She was not the least surprised. Very wisepeople, whether on land or in the sea, never are, and she listened tothe King's story as if she knew all about it.

  "Yes," she replied, in a thin croaking voice like a frog's, "you havedone well to come to me. When the human baby, the great-grandmother ofthe Queen, was confided to my charge, I studied her fate and that of herdescendants. The sea-serpent was an admirer of mine in those days, andhe was very obliging. He noted the position of the stars when he wentup above, and reported them to me. Between us we found out some of thefuture. I read that a descendant of the stranger should be seized withmortal illness while still young, and that her life should only be savedby the breath of an earth-flower that they call the rose, but that greatdifficulties would attend the procuring it for her, and that someconditions attach to the matter which I was unable to understand fully.All I know is this, the flower must be sought for by a beautiful andyouthful mermaid, but the first efforts will not succeed. Now you knowall I have to tell you. Farewell, you have no time to lose."

  And not another word would the wise mermaid say.

  The King had to take leave. His dolphins conducted him home again stillmore quickly than they had brought him, for the words rang in his ears,"You have no time to lose." Yet he knew not what to do. The conditionshe had already been told were difficult enough, for it was not a veryeasy task to swim to the surface, as, calm though the ocean always isdown below in the sea-folks' country, there is no telling how stormy andfurious it may be up above. And for a young and beautiful mermaid toundertake such an adventure would call for great courage. It was quiteagainst the usual customs of the sea-people.

  For the old stories and legends we hear about troops of lovely creaturesseen floating on the water, combing their hair and singing strangemelodies, were only true in the very-long-ago days. Now that mankindhas spread and increased so that there are but fe
w solitary places inthe world, few shores where only the sea-gull and the wild mew dwell,the daughters of the ocean stay in their own domain, whence it comesthat in these modern times many people do not believe in their existenceat all.

  The King went straight to the Queen's bower, where she lay surrounded byher ladies. She was sleeping, and though so pale and thin, her face wasvery sweet and lovely, her golden hair sparkling on the soft cushions ofsea moss on which she lay. Even as she was, she was more beautiful thanany of the mermaids about her.

  Yet some of them were very beautiful. The King's glance fell especiallyon two who were noted as the most charming among the Queen's attendants.Their names were Ila and Orona. A sudden idea struck the King.

  "I will cause it to be announced that a great reward shall be given toany young and beautiful