And the hermit said, “If that at any time some human being will freely give his life for thee, thou wilt gain a human soul.  But thou also must die the selfsame day.”

“The short life for the long one!” cried the Neck; and he played a melody so full of happiness that the blood danced through the hermit’s veins as if he were a boy again.  But the next day when he came as usual the Neck called to him and said, “My father, I have been thinking.  Thou art aged and feeble, and at the most there are but few days of life remaining to thee.  Moreover, by reason of thy loneliness even these are a burden.  Surely there is none more fit than thou to be the means of procuring me a human soul.  Wherefore I beg of thee, let us die to-day.”

But the hermit cried out angrily, “Wretch!  Is this thy gratitude?  Wouldst thou murder me?”

“Nay, old man,” replied the Neck, “thou shalt part easily with thy little fag-end of life.  I can play upon my harp a strain of such surpassing sadness that no human heart that hears it but must break.  And yet the pain of that heartbreak shall be such that thou wilt not know it from rapture.  Moreover, when the sun sets below the water, my spirit also will depart without suffering.  Wherefore I beg of thee, let us die to-day.”

“Truly,” said the hermit, “it is because thou art only a Neck, and nothing better, that thou dost not know the value of human life.”

“And art thou a man, possessed already of a soul, and destined for immortality,” cried the Neck, “and dost haggle and grudge to benefit me by the sacrifice of a few uncertain days, when it is but to exchange them for the life that knows no end?”

“Our days are always uncertain,” replied the hermit; “but existence is very sweet, even to the most wretched.  Moreover, I see not that thou hast any claim upon mine.”  Saying which he returned to his cell, but the Neck, flinging aside his harp, sat upon the water, and wept bitterly.

Days passed, and the hermit did not show himself, and at last the Neck resolved to go and visit him.  So he took his harp, and taking also the form of a boy with long fair hair and a crimson cap, he appeared in the hermit’s cell.  There he found the old man stretched upon his pallet, for lie was dying.  When he saw the Neck he was glad, and said, “I have desired to see thee, for I repent myself that I did not according to thy wishes.  Yet is the desire of life stronger in the human breast than thou canst understand.  Nevertheless I am sorry, and I am sorry also that, as I am sick unto death, my life will no longer avail thee.  But when I am dead, do thou take all that belongs to me, and dress thyself in my robe, and go out into the world, and do works of mercy, and perchance some one whom thou hast benefited will be found willing to die with thee, that thou mayst obtain a soul.”

“Now indeed I thank thee!” cried the Neck.  “But yet one word more—­what are these works of which thou speakest?”