. But Nelly no longer cared for
any place but the pretty cottage on the cliff that overlooked the sea,
and she was not tempted by any of the fine tales they told.

"No; I'd rather live here all alone where I can see my own people and
home, even if I wait years and years before the King comes. I know now
what a silly child I was to leave everything that I was made to use and
enjoy, and try to be a creature without any soul. I don't care if my
heart does ache; I'd rather be as I am than like you, without any love
in you or any wish to be good and wise and happy as we are."

Goldfin and Silver-tail thought her very ungrateful after she said that,
and left her alone. But she did not care; for Father Barnacle was to
stay and "stone up," as they called their queer way of dying. So when
all had gone she was very kind to the old merman, who never stirred out
of his nook, but sat meditating on the hundred years of his life and
wondering what would become of the rock he was slowly to grow a part of.

Nelly did not want him to die yet; so she brought him nice things to
eat, sang to him, and asked so many questions that he was forced to keep
awake and answer them. Oh, such wonderful stories as he told her! Such
interesting histories of sea flowers, fishes, and monsters, such wise
lessons in tides and stars, and the mysteries of the great ocean! Nelly
would sit on a conch shell and listen for hours, never tired of these
new fairy tales.

But she did not forget to watch for the Great Gull, and every day
floated near the shore, beckoning every white-winged bird that flew by
and asking for tidings of the King. At last he came! Nelly was lying on
the waves idly singing to herself, with one hand held up for her pet
sandpiper to light upon, when, instead of little Peep, a great silvery
bird perched there, and looking up she saw the fiery eye, the red ring
about the neck, the crest on the head, and with a joyful splash she
cried out,--

"He's come! he's come! Oh, dear King, give me another wish, a better
wish, and let me be a little girl again."

"Done!" said the Great Gull, waving his wings over her. "Will you be
contented now?"

"I will! I will!" answered Nelly, eagerly.

"Never wilful and disobedient?"

"Never, never!"

"Sure you won't want to be a bird, a fish, or a mermaid again?"

"Yes, yes; for nothing is so lovely as to be a child."

"Good!" and suddenly clutching her in his strong claws the gull flew
high up in the