"What is the matter, God-daughter? Your tears trickled down to me and woke me up, just as I was comfortably sleeping," he said querulously. "They're saltier than the sea, and I can't stand them."
"My shoe's gone! Oh! whatever am I to do? I'm so sorry, Godfather!"
"So you ought to be!" said the old man sharply. "I told you something bad would happen if you ever took them off. The question is now, Where's the shoe gone to?"
He leant his elbows on the mound, and looked out to sea.
"Just what I thought!" he exclaimed. "The Sea-children have taken it for a boat. I must speak to the Sea-grandmother about them, and get her to keep them in better order."
"Oh, it's gone then, and I shall never get it back again!" wept the Princess. "What am I to do, Godfather?"
"Have you courage enough to go and find your shoe by yourself?"
"If that's the only way to get it back," said the Princess bravely.
"Well, then, you must start immediately, or the Sea-children will have hidden it away somewhere. You will be obliged to have a passport, but I'll tell you how to get that. Take this veil"—and he drew a thin, transparent piece of silvery gauze from his pocket—"and throw it over your head whenever you go under the water. With it you will be able to breathe and see, as well as if you were on dry land. From this flask"—and he handed Sidigunda a curious little gold bottle—"you must pour a few drops on to your remaining shoe, and whenever you do so it will change in a moment into a boat, a horse, or a fish, as you desire it."