Undine | Page 5

told her sad tale.
'"I took our child down to the edge of the lake, and there we played
together, so happy, so merry. Suddenly the little one bent forward as
though she saw something beautiful in the water. Then she smiled, and
stretched out her tiny hands, and even as she did so, she slipped from
my arms into the lake, and I saw her no more."
'That evening,' said the fisherman, 'my wife and I sat by our hearth in
silence, we were too sad for words. Suddenly the door of our cottage

flew open, and there before us,[1] on the threshold, stood a little
maiden, three or four years of age. Her eyes were blue and her hair was
gold and she was clothed in beautiful garments.
[Footnote 1: See frontispiece.]
'We gazed in wonder at the tiny vision. Who was she? From whence
had she come? Was she only a magic child come to mock us in our
loneliness, or was she a real, a living child?
'Then as we looked we saw that water trickled from her golden hair and
that little streams were gathering at her tiny feet, as the water dripped
and dripped from her beautiful clothing.
'"She must have fallen into the lake," I said to my wife, "and in some
strange way have wandered into our cottage. We have lost our own
dear child, let us now do all we can to help this little one." Thus it came
to pass that the little stranger slept in the cot in which until now our
own babe had lain.
'When morning dawned my wife fed our tiny guest with bread and milk,
and the little one looked upon us, and her blue eyes danced merrily, but
never a word did she say.
'We asked her where her father and mother dwelt and how she had
come to our cottage. But her only answer was some childish talk of
crystal palaces and shining pearls. Even now indeed she speaks of
things so marvellous that we know not what to think.
'After some days we asked her once again from whence she came. She
told us that she had been on the sea with her mother, and had fallen
from her arms into the water, nor had she known more until she awoke
under the trees, close to our cottage, so well pleased with the fair shore
that she felt no fear.
'Then we said, "Let us keep the little stranger, and care for her as we
would have cared for our own lost child." We sent for a priest, who
baptized her, giving her the name by which she called herself, though

indeed it seemed no name for a Christian child.
'"Undine," said the priest as he performed the holy rite, while she, the
little one, stood before him gentle and sweet. No sooner, however, was
the service ended than she grew wild, wilful as was her way. For it is
true that my wife has had much trouble with the maiden--'
At that moment the knight interrupted the fisherman.
'Listen,' he cried, 'how the stream roars as it dashes past the window!'
Together they sprang to the door. The moon had risen, and the knight
and the fisherman saw that the stream which ran from the wood had
burst its banks. It was now rushing wildly along, carrying with it stones
and roots of trees. As they looked, the clouds grew dark and crept
across the face of the moon, the wind rose and lashed the water of the
lake into great waves.
'Undine! Undine!' cried the two men together, but no answer reached
them save the shrieking of the wind among the trees of the forest.
Then, careless of the storm, the fisherman and the knight rushed from
the cottage in search of the maiden.

CHAPTER III
UNDINE IS FOUND
As Huldbrand rushed out into the night, followed by the fisherman, the
storm seemed to rage yet more fiercely. The old man was soon left far
behind in the search for the lost maiden.
The knight, battling bravely with the storm, hastened hither and thither,
but all his efforts were vain. Undine was nowhere to be found.
And now, as the rain dashed down upon him and the wind hustled him,

Huldbrand grew bewildered. The storm seemed to have changed the
peaceful meadows into a weary wilderness, and even the maiden
herself seemed to flit before him as a phantom spirit of the wind.
Could it all have been but a dream? Had the cottage, the fisherman and
his wife been as unreal as the figures that had followed him in the
haunted forest? No, that he would not believe, for even yet in the
distance he could hear the faint echo of