Ting-a-ling

by Frank R. Stockton

There was a breeze in the room, that seemed to come and go like the waves of the sea; and the Prince could not imagine what occasioned it, for all the doors and windows were closed. However, looking upwards, he saw, behind the Princess's chair, the reason of the wind and the lady's slumber. Standing behind her, with his feet on the floor and his head high up in the obscurity of the ceiling, was a great Nimshee, or evil spirit of the ocean, who was fanning her with his wings, and had put her to sleep with their slow and dreamy motion. With his great eyes glowing like meteors in the dimness of the upper part of the room, the Nimshee glared at the Prince, and waved his wings faster and stronger. But our young friend was not afraid of him—not a bit. He walked softly round the room once or twice, and then, returning to the Princess, spoke to her. She did not awake, and the Prince called her louder and louder, and at last, putting his hand on her shoulder, he shook her; but still she slept. He felt that he must awaken her, and seizing the guitar that lay at her feet, he held it close to her ear, and struck the strings loudly. The Princess opened her eyes with a start; and as she awoke, the Nimshee, beating his breast with his wings, gave a great roar like the waves beating in a storm against a rocky coast, and flew away. The Princess blushed a little when she first saw the Prince, but he was so polite that she soon recovered herself, and they conversed quite pleasantly.

She explained the meaning of the musical instruments in the room, by stating that she had a great passion for music, and the good people of the palace brought her a new instrument nearly every day; but she never sat down to play any of them but she went almost immediately to sleep. She could not imagine the reason for this; but the Prince knew very well that the Nimshee had put her to sleep to-day at any rate, and he had no doubt but that he was always at the bottom of it. He said nothing to her, however, of what he had seen, as he perceived that she did not know it, and he did not wish to frighten her.

She said she had taken her guitar that evening, as soon as she had finished her supper, but had fallen asleep as usual. She asked the Prince, "Do you play?" and he said, "Only a little;" and then they walked around the room, and looked at all the instruments, to see if there were any that the Prince could play on better than the rest. He wished her to perform, but she urged him, and he soon saw a hand-organ, and said he was pretty sure that he could play on that. So he tried, and, sure enough, he could play very well, and the Princess sat down on the floor by him, and he played for almost an hour and three quarters, and they were both very much pleased. Then the Prince's arm got tired, and he stopped and asked the Princess to tell him her history. She said she was a little ashamed to tell him her story, because he might think that she was not of as good descent as himself; but the Prince insisting, she told him that her mother was a water-woman.

"A mermaid, I suppose?" said the Prince.

"O no!" she cried, "none of those low things with fish-tails, but a real princess of the ocean. She lived in a splendid palace at the bottom of the sea, and fell in love with a prince of the earth, who left his father's kingdom, and went down there and married her.

"I remember my father very well," continued the beautiful Princess. "He was a fine, handsome man, but our climate never seemed to agree with him. He could not smoke under the water, and he often used to have aches which helped to make him unhappy. Before he died, he said that he would give all the treasures of the ocean for a pipe and a piece of dry flannel. When he left her, mother pined away, and soon died too, when I was only about twelve years old. I was very lonely, but, as I was the daughter of a water-princess and a land-prince, I could go where I pleased, either on shore or in the water."

"Amphibious like?" said the Prince.

"I don't know anything about that," she replied; "but I used to like to walk about on the sea-shore, for everything was so different from what I had been accustomed to,—birds, you know, and all that sort of thing."

"O yes," said the Prince, "it must have been very different to you indeed; but I was going to say to you, a little while ago, that you need not think me above you, for I am half-brother to a gnome."