英语有声儿童童话故事 海的女儿 第18章

She grew more and more to likehuman beings and wished more and more to be able to wander about with thosewhose world seemed to be so much larger than her own. They could fly over the seain ships and mount the high hills which were far above the clouds; and thelands they possessed, their woods and their fields, stretched far away beyondthe reach of her sight. There was so much that she wished to know! but hersisters were unable to answer all her questions. She then went to her oldgrandmother, who knew all about the upper world, which she rightly called “thelands above the sea.”

“If human beings are notdrowned,” asked the little mermaid, “can they live forever? Do they never die,as we do here in the sea?”

“Yes,” replied the old lady,“they must also die, and their term of life is even shorter than ours. Wesometimes live for three hundred years, but when we cease to exist here, webecome only foam on the surface of the water and have not even a grave amongthose we love. We have not immortal souls, we shall never live again; like thegreen seaweed when once it has been cut off, we can never flourish more. Humanbeings, on the contrary, have souls which live forever, even after the body hasbeen turned to dust. They rise up through the clear, pure air, beyond theglittering stars. As we rise out of the water and behold all the land of theearth, so do they rise to unknown and glorious regions which we shall neversee.”