people that are waiting--and many of them had quite given up hope.

'I am tired of staying here,' grumbled a beautiful little creature,
whose colours changed with every movement of her body, 'I want to see
what is going on in the upper world. It must be months since that fish
went away.'

'It was a very difficult task, and the giant must certainly have killed
her or she would have been back long ago,' remarked another.

'The young flies will be coming out now,' murmured a third, 'and they
will all be eaten up by the river fish! It is really too bad!' When,
suddenly, a voice was heard from behind: 'Look! look! what is that
bright thing that is moving so swiftly towards us?' And the queen
started up, and stood on her tail, so excited was she.

A silence fell on all the crowd, and even the grumblers held their peace
and gazed like the rest. On and on came the fish, holding the crown
tightly in her mouth, and the others moved back to let her pass. On she
went right up to the queen, who bent and, taking the crown, placed it on
her own head. Then a wonderful thing happened. Her tail dropped away or,
rather, it divided and grew into two legs and a pair of the prettiest
feet in the world, while her maidens, who were grouped around her, shed
their scales and became girls again. They all turned and looked at each
other first, and next at the little fish who had regained her own shape
and was more beautiful than any of them.

'It is you who have given us back our life; you, you!' they cried; and
fell to weeping from very joy.

So they all went back to earth and the queen's palace, and quite forgot
the one that lay under the sea. But they had been so long away that they
found many changes. The prince, the queen's husband, had died some years
since, and in his place was her son, who had grown up and was king! Even
in his joy at seeing his mother again an air of sadness clung to him,
and at last the queen could bear it no longer, and begged him to walk
with her in the garden. Seated together in a bower of jessamine--where
she had passed long hours as a bride--she took her son's hand and
entreated him to tell her the cause of his sorrow. 'For,' said she, 'if
I can give you happiness you shall have it.'

'It is no use,' answered the prince; 'nobody can help me. I must bear it
alone.'

'But at least let me share your grief,' urged the queen.

'No one can do that,' said he. 'I have fallen in love with what I can
never marry,