Once more she looked at the prince, with her eyes already dimmed by death, then dashed overboard and fell, her body dissolving into foam.

Now the sun rose from the sea and with its kindly beams warmed the deadly cold foam, so that the little mermaid did not feel the chill of death.  She saw the bright sun, and above her floated hundreds of beauteous ethereal beings, through which she could see the white ship and the rosy heavens; their voices were melodious, but so spirit-like that no human ear could hear them, any more than earthly eye could see their forms.  Light as bubbles they floated through the air without the aid of wings.  The little mermaid perceived that she had a form like theirs; it gradually took shape out of the foam.  ‘To whom am I coming?’ said she, and her voice sounded like that of the other beings, so unearthly in its beauty that no music of ours could reproduce it.

‘To the daughters of the air!’ answered the others; ’a mermaid has no undying soul, and can never gain one without winning the love of a human being.  Her eternal life must depend upon an unknown power.  Nor have the daughters of the air an everlasting soul, but by their own good deeds they may create one for themselves.  We fly to the tropics where mankind is the victim of hot and pestilent winds; there we bring cooling breezes.  We diffuse the scent of flowers all around, and bring refreshment and healing in our train.  When, for three hundred years, we have laboured to do all the good in our power, we gain an undying soul and take a part in the everlasting joys of mankind.  You, poor little mermaid, have with your whole heart struggled for the same thing as we have struggled for.  You have suffered and endured, raised yourself to the spirit-world of the air, and now, by your own good deeds you may, in the course of three hundred years, work out for yourself an undying soul.’

Then the little mermaid lifted her transparent arms towards God’s sun, and for the first time shed tears.

On board ship all was again life and bustle.  She saw the prince with his lovely bride searching for her; they looked sadly at the bubbling foam, as if they knew that she had thrown herself into the waves.  Unseen she kissed the bride on her brow, smiled at the prince, and rose aloft with the other spirits of the air to the rosy clouds which sailed above.

‘In three hundred years we shall thus float into Paradise.’

‘We might reach it sooner,’ whispered one.  ’Unseen we flit into those homes of men where there are children, and for every day that we find a good child who gives pleasure to its parents and deserves their love God shortens our time of probation.  The child does not know when we fly through the room, and when we smile with pleasure at it one year of our three hundred is taken away.  But if we see a naughty or badly disposed child, we cannot help shedding tears of sorrow, and every tear adds a day to the time of our probation.’