ll the more, as I do not know whether I shall ever
behold any other beings is this world, except those I now address."

"What do you mean?" asked the fisherman.

"Do you know then how long this commotion of the elements is to
last?" replied the holy man. "And I am old in years. Easily enough
may the stream of my life run itself out before the overflowing of
the forest-stream may subside. And indeed it were not impossible
that more and more of the foaming waters may force their way between
you and yonder forest, until you are so far sundered from the rest
of the world that your little fishing-boat will no longer be
sufficient to carry you across, and the inhabitants of the continent
in the midst of their diversions will have entirely forgotten you in
your old age."

The fisherman's wife started at this, crossed herself and exclaimed.
"God forbid." But her husband looked at her with a smile, and said
"What creatures we are after all! even were it so, things would not
be very different--at least not for you, dear wife--than they now
are. For have you for many years been further than the edge of the
forest? and have you seen any other human beings than Undine and
myself? The knight and this holy man have only come to as lately.
They will remain with us if we do become a forgotten island; so you
would even be a gainer by it after all."

"I don't know," said the old woman; "it is somehow a gloomy thought,
when one imagines that one is irrecoverably separated from other
people, although, were it otherwise, one might neither know nor see
them."

"Then you will remain with us! then you will remain with us!"
whispered Undine, in a low, half-singing tone, as she nestled closer
to Huldbrand's side. But he was absorbed in the deep and strange
visions of his own mind.

The region on the other side of the forest-river seemed to dissolve
into distance during the priest's last words: and the blooming
island upon which he lived grew more green, and smiled more freshly
in his mind's vision. His beloved one glowed as the fairest rose of
this little spot of earth, and even of the whole world, and the
priest was actually there. Added to this, at that moment an angry
glance from the old dame was directed at the beautiful girl,
because even in the presence of the reverend father she leaned so
closely on the knight, and it seemed as if a torrent of reproving
words were on the point of following. Presently, turning to the
priest, Huldbr