有声英语儿童童话故事 海的女儿 第35章

In the moonlight night, when allon board were asleep except the man at the helm, she sat on deck, gazing downthrough the clear water. She thought she could distinguish her father’s castle,and upon it her aged grandmother, with the silver crown on her head, lookingthrough the rushing tide at the keel of the vessel. Then her sisters came up onthe waves and gazed at her mournfully, wringing their white hands. She beckonedto them, and smiled, and wanted to tell them how happy and well off she was.But the cabin boy approached, and when her sisters dived down, he thought whathe saw was only the foam of the sea.

The next morning theship sailed into the harbor of a beautiful town belonging to the king whom theprince was going to visit. The church bells were ringing, and from the hightowers sounded a flourish of trumpets. Soldiers, with flying colors andglittering bayonets, lined the roads through which they passed. Every day was afestival, balls and entertainments following one another. But the princess hadnot yet appeared. People said that she had been brought up and educated in areligious house, where she was learning every royal virtue.