“The Moon sprites, however, were not affected by the King’s enchantments, so they had no difficulty in reaching her. Suddenly the mermaid saw a gleam of brilliant silver flooding the darkness behind her, and in a moment she was surrounded by a thousand little silver-dressed creatures. At the same moment the Moon sprites caught sight of a glimmering figure of matchless beauty sitting on a high cliff. The maiden was a vision of loveliness. Long, waving, golden hair floated about her, and her eyes were the color of the sea. She held a lute in her hand; as her fingers moved softly across it, it gave forth a weird but beautiful sound, and to this accompaniment she sang charmingly. Quickly the Moon sprites told her of the plan for rescuing her, and joyfully she listened.
“They carefully suspended the silver ladder from her mountain cliff. Holding it tight between them to steady it, they flung it swiftly down until its brilliant steps touched the trembling water. At this moment they heard a faint noise like rumbling thunder, and the affrighted maiden bade them hurry with their work, as it was the signal that the Gnome King would soon visit her. In a twinkling they seized the maiden in their arms, and carried her down the brilliant steps. They were not a moment too soon, for hardly had they placed the maiden in her bridegroom’s arms and picked up their ladder, when the Gnome King and his legion of wicked gnomes were swarming on the mountain-top.
“The rage of the wicked King was fearful to see, but it was useless. He could not regain the mermaid and he could not harm a Moon sprite; but in his anger he pelted the beach with stones, venting his fury in destroying its beauty. Small but ugly, they fell in thousands, covering the golden yellow of the sand, and hiding its glistening splendor. Thus he showered his spite upon the beautiful playground of the mermaids.
“But the Sea King’s daughters were too happy over the return of their beloved sister to fret very much. True, their charmingly beautiful beach seemed ruined, but their beloved sister was home again. Thousands, indeed millions, of little stones were piled about in ugly confusion, and marred the soft, bright sand the sea people so loved, but they were powerless to prevent it. The Moon sprites went back to their work of fastening the moon-ladder to the Earth, and the Sea King invited them to remain for his daughter’s wedding the next night.
“The wedding spectacle was certainly a grand one, for the Ocean Monarch had ordered the greatest fireworks in his kingdom in honor of the event. The sea blazed up as though it were burning. Flames seemed to leap and flare up everywhere, and thousands of brilliant colors mixed and trembled in its depths. The phosphorescence was wonderful, and wherever the eye could reach, the brilliant lights shone and sparkled. The Moon sprites were amazed at such magnificence. The night was as brilliant and beautiful as day; and they felt that the wonders of the Earth world were great indeed.
“Just then a messenger arrived from her Imperial Majesty of the Moon, saying that she had watched her workmen rescuing the maiden, and had seen the wedding festival and the splendid illumination, and before recalling her little people to the Moon, she wished to give the bride a present. The wicked Gnome King had tried to ruin the playground of the mermaids, but she would restore it, making it more interesting and fascinating than ever.
“It was a royal gift the Moon Queen gave. She said that henceforth the beach should be enchanted. The hideous stones the gnomes had thrown should not ruin it after all, but should make it more precious to the world, for they should all turn to shining jewels. She chose to make the white pebbles the loveliest of them all, and so change them that the sea people could never forget her. These stones shone as clear as crystal, and in the pure depths of each one there trembled a moon-ray, a memento of her crystal kingdom. This brilliant ray glistened like a diamond, caught and held a prisoner, and was from that day called the moonstone. But it was hard indeed to choose the prettiest of the beach jewels. For opals clear as water, and with fire from the sea, sparkled beside the moonstones; sardonyx, chrysoprase, and emerald, jasper, aquamarine, and topaz, were piled so high that the beach was soon most widely known.
“The Earth people come in hundreds to seek these treasures, making them into precious necklaces and charms. But though they carry thousands and thousands away with them each day, the mermaids smile and do not mind at all, because the Moon-ladder, uncoiling every night in sparkling brilliancy, reaches down from the silver palace and touches the beach like a magician’s wand, and the mermaids know that so long as the shining steps of brilliant silver shall rest upon these sands, just so long will the beach continue enchanted, and splendid jewels be formed in such glittering quantities that they will last for ever.”
CHAPTER VIII
THE LOST OCEAN
