“Come back, O Moneta!” but she heard him not.
He went every day to the same spot, never leaving it until the water was clear, and he had seen his wife and child. He cared no more for his fine castle and his gold; for the castle was empty, and the gold could not speak.
“Alas,” cried he, “if I could listen to the music of Moneta’s voice! if I could hold the child in my arms once more!”
Now he cared for nothing but to gaze into the waters at Moneta and her child.
One day, the water-kelpie appeared to him in the form of an old man.
THE WATER-KELPIE. Page [70].
“Why sit you here, sighing like the north wind?” said the kelpie.
“I have loved gold better than my best friends,” replied Ivan; “and now my best friends are taken away from me, and the gold is left; but I love it no longer.”
“Ah, ah!” growled the kelpie; “I have heard of such men as you: nothing is dear till it is missed. You should have thought of that before. If your lost ones were to return, you would treat them as badly as ever, no doubt.”