"That is the song they sing as they work," said he. "Listen! do you not hear it?" Effie listened hard and just caught a few words of the chorus.
"Every one here has his part——
Has his work to do, has his love to give,——
Thus we work, thus we love ever while we live."
"Why, that is what the maidens who were spinning sang," said she.
"Yes," said he, "they all sing the same song to different music." Then she began to hear the words all about her, and she found that the little sea green man, and the fishes, small and great, and the dolphins and the old constable sword fish were all singing the same song, each in his own way. So they went down again and through the whole palace and saw the shells, some of them indeed making pearls, but all singing the same song, and the sponges that were growing and the branches of coraline that one by one loosened themselves and floated upward, singing as they rose all about her, from corals and shells and grasses and sponges and fishes, came this one song, each singing it to his own air, yet the whole melody rising and sinking in a single harmonious strain.
Effie looked on at every thing in wonder, and at last they came back to the Queen's presence. She, too, was singing with her maidens; but when the procession came in again, and went through their bows once more, she said to the little sea-green man—and their voices were all hushed:
"My faithful servant, have you shown the little maiden all the wonders of the palace?"
"Yea, my good-loving Queen."
"And do they all spend their lives in good-working, singing as they work?"
"Yea, my good-loving Queen, all;" and the hum of the song rose all about her.
"Then back again lead the little child, and carry her to her home on earth, that she too may live and work and sing. For