海的女兒（五）

　　最后，她滿十五歲了。

　　“現(xiàn)在你可以到海面上去了。”她的祖母說。

　　當她升到海面上時，太陽剛剛下落。海上有一條大船，船上的人在歌唱。夜幕降臨了，船上點著 幾百盞燈。

　　小海公主向這條船游去。她透過窗戶往里張望 ，看見許多服飾華麗的人；他們之中，最美的是那個有一對大藍眼睛的年輕王子，他比海公主自己大不了多少。船里燈火輝煌，什么東西都看得清清楚楚。哦！這位年輕的王子多么幸福啊！

　　小海公主離不開這艘船和美貌而年輕的王子。

　　她待在那兒，透過船窗注視著里面的東西。船在水里加快了速度。忽然一聲巨響，天下起雨來。大船左右搖晃，水涌進船艙。

　　小海公主覺得這一切都很有趣，但船上的人們卻很驚慌。突然間，船體破裂，沉下海去了。

　　小海公主找尋年輕的王子，她一度想道：“現(xiàn)

　　在王子會到我們的海中城市來了。”但她又說：“ 人能在水里生活嗎？如果王子到我們家來，那他可

　　能已經(jīng)死了！”

　　“死？不成，他決不能死！”她叫了起來。

　　她很快地游到王子身邊，把他的頭拖出水面。

　　他的眼睛閉著，他快死了。她說：“我一定要救活他！”

       When she went up to thetop of the water, the sun was just going down. A big ship was on the sea. The men on the ship were singing. When night came, there were hundreds of lights on the ship.

　　thelittle sea princess went near the ship. She looked through the windows. She saw many richly dressed men; the most beautiful of them all was a young prince with big blue eyes. He was not much older than the sea princess herself. It was so light in the ship that everything could be seen. Oh! how happy the young prince was!

　　thelittle sea princess could not go away from the ship and the beautiful young prince. She stayed looking through the window of the ship. The ship began to go more quickly through the water. There was a big noise and it began to rain. The big ship was thrown about from side to side. Water came into it.

　　thelittle sea princess thought that all this was very nice, but the people on the ship were afraid. All at once the ship broke. It went down in the sea.

　　thelittle sea princess looked for the young prince. For a time, she thought, "Now the prince must come to my city in the sea. " But she said, "Can men live in water? If the prince ever comes to my house, he maybe dead!"

　　"Die? No, he must not die!" she cried out.

　　She went quickly to theprince and held his head out of the water. His eyes were shut; he was nearly dead. She said, "I must save him!"