海的女儿（五）

　　最后，她满十五岁了。

　　“现在你可以到海面上去了。”她的祖母说。

　　当她升到海面上时，太阳刚刚下落。海上有一条大船，船上的人在歌唱。夜幕降临了，船上点着 几百盏灯。

　　小海公主向这条船游去。她透过窗户往里张望 ，看见许多服饰华丽的人；他们之中，最美的是那个有一对大蓝眼睛的年轻王子，他比海公主自己大不了多少。船里灯火辉煌，什么东西都看得清清楚楚。哦！这位年轻的王子多么幸福啊！

　　小海公主离不开这艘船和美貌而年轻的王子。

　　她待在那儿，透过船窗注视着里面的东西。船在水里加快了速度。忽然一声巨响，天下起雨来。大船左右摇晃，水涌进船舱。

　　小海公主觉得这一切都很有趣，但船上的人们却很惊慌。突然间，船体破裂，沉下海去了。

　　小海公主找寻年轻的王子，她一度想道：“现

　　在王子会到我们的海中城市来了。”但她又说：“ 人能在水里生活吗？如果王子到我们家来，那他可

　　能已经死了！”

　　“死？不成，他决不能死！”她叫了起来。

　　她很快地游到王子身边，把他的头拖出水面。

　　他的眼睛闭着，他快死了。她说：“我一定要救活他！”

       When she went up to thetop of the water, the sun was just going down. A big ship was on the sea. The men on the ship were singing. When night came, there were hundreds of lights on the ship.

　　thelittle sea princess went near the ship. She looked through the windows. She saw many richly dressed men; the most beautiful of them all was a young prince with big blue eyes. He was not much older than the sea princess herself. It was so light in the ship that everything could be seen. Oh! how happy the young prince was!

　　thelittle sea princess could not go away from the ship and the beautiful young prince. She stayed looking through the window of the ship. The ship began to go more quickly through the water. There was a big noise and it began to rain. The big ship was thrown about from side to side. Water came into it.

　　thelittle sea princess thought that all this was very nice, but the people on the ship were afraid. All at once the ship broke. It went down in the sea.

　　thelittle sea princess looked for the young prince. For a time, she thought, "Now the prince must come to my city in the sea. " But she said, "Can men live in water? If the prince ever comes to my house, he maybe dead!"

　　"Die? No, he must not die!" she cried out.

　　She went quickly to theprince and held his head out of the water. His eyes were shut; he was nearly dead. She said, "I must save him!"