有声英语儿童童话故事 海的女儿 第23章

The little mermaid was so alarmedat what she saw that she stood still and her heart beat with fear. She camevery near turning back, but she thought of the prince and of the human soul forwhich she longed, and her courage returned. She fastened her long, flowing hairround her head, so that the polypi should not lay hold of it. She crossed herhands on her bosom, and then darted forward as a fish shoots through the water,between the supple arms and fingers of the ugly polypi, which were stretchedout on each side of her. She saw that they all held in their grasp somethingthey had seized with their numerous little arms, which were as strong as ironbands. Tightly grasped in their clinging arms were white skeletons of humanbeings who had perished at sea and had sunk down into the deep waters;skeletons of land animals; and oars, rudders, and chests, of ships. There waseven a little mermaid whom they had caught and strangled, and this seemed themost shocking of all to the little princess.