ed in pearl, the sidewalks to be
paved in gold. At their sides grew mer-trees, the highest she had
ever seen, with all kinds of beautiful singing fish roosting in
their branches. Little mer-boats of carved pink coral with purple
seaweed sails or of mother-of-pearl with rosy, mer-flower-petal
sails, were floating through the streets. In some, sat little
mer-maidens, the sunlight flashing on their pretty green scales, on
their long, golden tresses, on the bright mirrors they held in their
hands. Other boats held little mer-boys who made beautiful music on
the harps they carried.

"At one end of the mer-village Klara could see one palace, bigger
and more beautiful than all the others. Through an open window she
caught a glimpse of the mer-king--a jolly old fellow with a fat red
face and a long white beard sitting on a throne of gold. At his side
reclined the mer-queen--a very beautiful lady with a skin as white as
milk and eyes as green as emeralds. Little mer-princes and little
mer-princesses were playing on the floor with tiny mer-kittens and
tinier mer-puppies. One sweet little mer-baby was tiptailing towards
the window with a pearl that she had stolen from her sister's
coronet.

"It seemed to Klara that this mer-village was the most enchanting
place that she had ever seen in her life. Oh, how she wanted to live
there!

"'Oh, good mer-king,' she called entreatingly, 'and good mer-queen,
please let me come to live in your palace.'

"Bing! The water rustled and roiled as if all the birds of paradise
that the world contained had taken flight. Swish! It was perfectly
quiet again. The mer-village was as deserted as a graveyard.

"'Well, if they don't want me, they shan't get me, Klara said. And
she walked on twice as proud.'

"By this time she was getting closer and closer to the moon. The
nearer she came the bigger it grew. Now it filled the entire sky.
The door had remained open all this time. Through it she could see a
garden--a garden more beautiful than any fairy-tale garden that she
had ever read about. From the doorway silvery paths stretched
between hedges as high as a giant's head. Sometimes these paths
ended in fountains whose spray twisted into all kinds of fairy-like
shapes. Sometimes these paths seemed to stop flush against the
clouds. Nearer stretched flower-beds so brilliant that you would
have thought a kaleidoscope had broken on the ground. Birds, like
living jewels, flew in and out through the tree