“Come with me to my mother’s house, and you shall be refreshed with cake and wine.”
She arose to follow him; and, as she walked, a bright shower of gold-dust sprinkled the earth at every step.
The young man held out his hands eagerly to catch the shining spray, thinking he would like such a rarely-gifted damsel for his wife; and, in truth, he smiled so sweetly, and dropped such winning words, that in time he won her heart and she became his bride.
“And, when she cam’ into the kirk,
She shimmered like the sun;
The belt that was about her waist
Was a’ with pearles bedone.”
So great was her love for him, that she forgot her lost home under the earth; and every day, when she bade her husband “good-morning,” she placed in his hand a precious stone; and he kissed her, calling her his “dear Moneta,” his “heart’s jewel.” But at last the diamonds, sapphires, and rubies were all gone; and she was also losing the power of shedding gold-dust. Then her husband frowned on her, and no longer called her his “heart’s jewel,” or his “dear Moneta.”
At length she presented him with a little daughter as lovely as a water-sprite, with hair like threads of gold. Now the father watched the babe with a greedy eye; for its mother had wept precious tears of molten gold before she received the gift of human grief, and he hoped her child would do the same; but, when he found it was only a common mortal, he shut his heart against the babe. Moneta was no longer yellow and ugly, but very beautiful; with deep eyes, out of which looked a sweet soul: yet she had lost her fairy gifts, and her husband had ceased to love her. The good woman mourned in secret; and would have wished to die, only her precious child comforted her heart.
One day, as she was sitting by the shore of the lake, a water-kelpie saw her weeping, and came to her in the form of a white-haired old man, saying,—
“Charming lady! why do you weep? Come with me to my kingdom under the waters. My people are always happy.”
Then she looked where he bade her, and saw, afar down under the waters, a beautiful city, whose streets were paved with red and white coral.
The kelpie said, “Will you go down?”