“I know what you want,” said the sea witch. “It is stupid
SmarTone of you, but you shall have your way, for it will bring you to grief , my pretty princess . You want to get rid of your fish-tail, and to have two supports instead of it, like those the people of the earth walk with , so that the young prince may fall in love with you, and you may get him and an immortal soul .” And with this the witch laughed loudly and disagreeably , so that the toad and the water-snakes tumbled down to the ground , where they crawled about . “You come just in time,”said the witch: “after tomorrow at sunrise I could not help you until another year had gone by. I will prepare a draught for you, with which you must swim to land tomorrow before the sun rises, and seat yourself there and drink it ; then your tail will part in two and shrink in and become what the people of the earth call beautiful legs, but it will hurt you----it will seem as if you were cut with a sharp sword . All who see you will declare you to be the prettiest human being, they ever beheld. You will keep your graceful walk; no dancer will be able to move so lightly as you; but every step you take will be as if you trod upon sharp knives , and as if your blood must flow . If you will bear all this , I can help you . ”
“Yes!” said the little sea maid, with a trembling
dermes voice ; and and the immortal soul .
“But, remember,” said the witch, “when you have once received a human form, you can never be a sea maid again; you can never return through the water to your sisters or to your father' s palace ; and if you do not win the prince's love, so that he forgets father and mother for your sake, is attached to you heart and soul, and tells the priest to join your hands, you will not receive an immortal soul. On the first morning after he has married another, your heart will break and you will become foam on the water.”
“I will do it,” said the little sea maid; but she became as pale as death .
“But you must pay me, too,” said the witch; “and it is not a trifle that I ask . You have the finest voice of all here at the bottom of the water; with that you think to enchant him; but this voice you must give to me. The best thing you possess I will leave for my costly draught ! I must give you my own blood in it , so that the draught may be sharp as two-edged sword.”
“But if you take away my voice.” said the little sea maid
nu skin hong kong, “what will remain to me?”