Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks | Page 2

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them up! The mermaids, dear creatures, had to be escorted home, but
they felt safe, for their mermen brothers and daddies were so fierce that,
except sharks, even the larger fish, such as porpoises and dolphins were
afraid to come near them.
One day daddy and the mother left to visit some relatives near the
island of Urk. They were to be gone several days. Meanwhile, their
daughter was to have a party, her aunts being the chaperones.
The mermaids usually held their picnics on an island in the midst of the
pool. Here they would sit and sun themselves. They talked about the
fashions and the prettiest way to dress their hair. Each one had a pocket
mirror, but where they kept these, while swimming, no mortal ever
found out. They made wreaths of bright colored seaweed, orange and
black, blue, gray and red and wore them on their brows like coronets.
Or, they twined them, along with sea berries and bubble blossoms,
among their tresses. Sometimes they made girdles of the strongest and
knotted them around their waists.
Every once in a while they chose a queen of beauty for their ruler. Then
each of the others pretended to be a princess. Their games and sports
often lasted all day and they were very happy.
Swimming out in the salt water, the mermaids would go in quest of
pearls, coral, ambergris and other pretty things. These they would bring
to their queen, or with them richly adorn themselves. Thus the
Mermaid Queen and her maidens made a court of beauty that was
famed wherever mermaids and merrymen lived. They often talked
about human maids.
"How funny it must be to wear clothes," said one.
"Are they cold that they have to keep warm?" It was a little chit of a
mermaid, whose flippers had hardly begun to grow into hands, that

asked this question.
"How can they swim with petticoats on?" asked another.
"My brother heard that real men wear wooden shoes! These must
bother them, when on the water, to have their feet floating," said a third,
whose name was Silver Scales. "What a pity they don't have flukes like
us," and then she looked at her own glistening scaly coat in admiration.
"I can hardly believe it," said a mermaid, that was very proud of her
fine figure and slender waist. "Their girls can't be half as pretty as we
are."
"Well, I should like to be a real woman for a while, just to try it, and
see how it feels to walk on legs," said another, rather demurely, as if
afraid the other mermaids might not like her remark.
They didn't. Out sounded a lusty chorus, "No! No! Horrible! What an
idea! Who wouldn't be a mermaid?"
"Why, I've heard," cried one, "that real women have to work, wash
their husband's clothes, milk cows, dig potatoes, scrub floors and take
care of calves. Who would be a woman? Not I"--and her snub
nose--since it could not turn up--grew wide at the roots. She was
sneering at the idea that a creature in petticoats could ever look lovelier
than one in shining scales.
"Besides," said she, "think of their big noses, and I'm told, too, that
girls have even to wear hairpins."
At this--the very thought that any one should have to bind up their
tresses--there was a shock of disgust with some, while others clapped
their hands, partly in envy and partly in glee.
But the funniest things the mermaids heard of were gloves, and they
laughed heartily over such things as covers for the fingers. Just for fun,
one of the little mermaids used to draw some bag-like seaweed over her
hands, to see how such things looked.

One day, while sunning themselves in the grass on the island, one of
their number found a bush on which foxgloves grew. Plucking these,
she covered each one of her fingers with a red flower. Then, flopping
over to the other girls, she held up her gloved hands. Half in fright and
half in envy, they heard her story.
After listening, the party was about to break up, when suddenly a
young merman splashed into view. The tide was running out and the
stream low, so he had had hard work to get through the fresh water of
the river and to the island. His eyes dropped salt water, as if he were
crying. He looked tired, while puffing and blowing, and he could
hardly get his breath. The queen of the mermaids asked him what he
meant by coming among her maids at such an hour and in such
condition.
At this the bashful merman began to blubber. Some of the mergirls put
their hands over their mouths to hide their laughing, while they winked