Come with me, and you shall enjoy every happiness which your
heart can desire, and you shall want for nothing. I will watch over and
protect you as the apple of my eye, so that neither wind nor rain nor
frost shall touch you."

Sleepy Tony stood for a time uncertain what to answer, though every word
of the maiden was like a flaming arrow in his heart. At last he
stammered out an inquiry as to whether her home was very far away. "We
can reach it with the speed of the wind, if you have confidence in me,"
answered the mermaid. Then Sleepy Tony remembered many sayings which he
had heard about the mermaid, and his heart failed him, and he asked for
three days to make up his mind. "I will agree to your wish," said the
mermaid, "but lest you should again be doubtful, I will put my gold ring
on your finger before we part, that you may not forget to return. When
we are better acquainted, this pledge may serve as an engagement ring."
She then drew off the ring, placed it on the youth's little finger, and
vanished as if she had melted into air. Sleepy Tony stood staring with
wide-open eyes, and would have supposed it was all a dream, if the
sparkling ring on his finger had not been proof to the contrary. But the
ring seemed like a strange spirit, which left him no peace or rest
anywhere. He wandered aimlessly about the shore all night, and always
returned to the rock on which the maiden had been sitting; but the stone
was cold and vacant. In the morning he lay down for a short time, but
uneasy dreams disturbed his sleep. When he awoke, he felt neither hunger
nor thirst, and all his thoughts were directed towards the evening, when
he hoped to see the mermaid again. The day waned at last, and evening
approached, the wind sank, the birds in the alder-bushes left off
singing and tucked their tired heads under their wings, but that evening
he saw the mermaid nowhere.

He wept bitter tears of sorrow and trouble, and reflected bitterly on
his folly in having hesitated to seize the good fortune offered to him
the evening before, when a cleverer fellow would have grasped at it with
both hands. But regret and complaint were useless now. The night and the
day which followed were equally painful to him, and his trouble weighed
upon him so much that he never felt hunger. Towards sunset he sat down
with an aching heart on the rock where the mermaid had sat two evenings
ago. He began to weep bitterly, and exclaimed, sobbing, "If she does not
c