ad a castle
by the Rhine.

A splash against the window surprising the guest he was informed by his
host, with some little show of vexation, that little tricks were often
played by a foster-child of the old couple, named Undine, a girl of
eighteen.

The door flew open, and a lovely girl glided, laughing, into the room.
Without the slightest token of shyness she gazed at the knight for a few
moments, then asked why he had come to the poor cottage.

"Have you come through the wild forest?"

He confessed that he had, and she instantly demanded a recital of his
adventures. With a slight shudder at his own recollections of the
strange creatures he had encountered, Huldbrand consented, but a reproof
from the fisherman at her obtrusiveness angered Undine. The girl sprang
up and rushed forth into the night, exclaiming, "Sleep alone in your
smoky old hut!"

In great alarm, the fisherman and Huldbrand rose to follow the girl, but
she had vanished in the darkness. Remarking that she had acted so
before, the old fisherman invited Huldbrand to sit by the fire and talk
awhile, and began to relate how Undine had come to live with them.

The couple had lost their only child, a wonderfully beautiful little
girl. At the age of three, when sitting in her mother's lap at the edge
of the lake, she seemed to be attracted by some lovely apparition in the
water, for, suddenly stretching out her hands and laughing, she had in a
moment sprung into the lake. No trace of the child could ever be found.
But the same evening a lovely little girl, three or four years old, with
water streaming from her golden tresses, suddenly entered the cottage,
smiling sweetly at the fisherman and his wife. They hastily undressed
the little stranger and put her to bed. She uttered not a word, but
simply smiled. In the morning she talked a little, confusedly telling
how she had been in a boat on the lake with her mother, and had fallen
in, and could recollect nothing more. She could say nothing as to who
she was or whence she came. But she talked often of golden castles and
crystal domes.

While the fisherman was talking thus to the knight, he was suddenly
interrupted by the noise of rushing water. Floods seemed to be bursting
forth, and he and his guest, going hastily to the door, saw by the
moonlight that the brook which issued from the forest was surging in a
wild torrent over its margin, while a roaring wind was lashing the lake.
In great alarm both shout