Undine (2nd translation) | Page 8

to me, and I shuddered when,
amid the noise and brawls of the city, I thought to myself, 'In such
scenes as these, or in one not much more quiet, thou wilt also soon
make thy abode!' But at the same time I did not murmur against the
good God; on the contrary, I thanked him in secret for the new-born
babe; I should be telling a lie, too, were I to say, that on my journey
through the wood, going or returning, anything befell me out of the
common way, and at that time I had never seen any of its fearful
wonders. The Lord was ever with me in those mysterious shades."
As he spoke he took his little cap from his bald head, and remained for
a time occupied with prayerful thoughts; he then covered himself again,
and continued:--
"On this side the forest, alas! a sorrow awaited me. My wife came to
meet me with tearful eyes and clad in mourning. 'Oh! Good God!' I
groaned, 'where is our dear child? speak!'--'With him on whom you
have called, dear husband,' she replied; and we now entered the cottage
together weeping silently. I looked around for the little corpse, and it
was then only that I learned how it had all happened."
"My wife had been sitting with the child on the edge of the lake, and as
she was playing with it, free of all fear and full of happiness, the little
one suddenly bent forward, as if attracted by something very beautiful
in the water. My wife saw her laugh, the dear angel, and stretch out her
little hands; but in a moment she had sprung out of her mother's arms,
and had sunk beneath the watery mirror. I sought long for our little lost
one; but it was all in vain; there was no trace of her to be found."
"The same evening we, childless parents, were sitting silently together
in the cottage; neither of us had any desire to talk, even had our tears
allowed us. We sat gazing into the fire on the hearth. Presently, we
heard something rustling outside the door: it flew open, and a beautiful
little girl three or four years old, richly dressed, stood on the threshold

smiling at us. We were quite dumb with astonishment, and I knew not
at first whether it were a vision or a reality. But I saw the water
dripping from her golden hair and rich garments, and I perceived that
the pretty child had been lying in the water, and needed help. 'Wife,'
said I, 'no one has been able to save our dear child; yet let us at any rate
do for others what would have made us so blessed.' We undressed the
little one, put her to bed, and gave her something warm; at all this she
spoke not a word, and only fixed her eyes, that reflected the blue of the
lake and of the sky, smilingly upon us. Next morning we quickly
perceived that she had taken no harm from her wetting, and I now
inquired about her parents, and how she had come here. But she gave a
confused and strange account. She must have been born far from here,
not only because for these fifteen years I have not been able to find out
anything of her parentage, but because she then spoke, and at times still
speaks, of such singular things that such as we are cannot tell but that
she may have dropped upon us from the moon. She talks of golden
castles, of crystal domes, and heaven knows what besides. The story
that she told with most distinctness was, that she was out in a boat with
her mother on the great lake, and fell into the water, and that she only
recovered her senses here under the trees where she felt herself quite
happy on the merry shore. We had still a great misgiving and perplexity
weighing on our heart. We had, indeed, soon decided to keep the child
we had found and to bring her up in the place of our lost darling; but
who could tell us whether she had been baptized or not? She herself
could give us no information on the matter. She generally answered our
questions by saying that she well knew she was created for Gods praise
and glory, and that she was ready to let us do with her whatever would
tend to His honor and glory."
"My wife and I thought that if she were not baptized, there was no time
for delay, and that if she were, a good thing could not be repeated too
often. And in pursuance of this idea, we reflected upon a good name for
the child, for we