Page:Fairy Book by Sophie May.djvu/84

76 eyes, glided slowly forward. Then the nixies stormed in fierce wrath, their willowy figures swaying to and fro as if blown by the wind.

"They shall not harm you, little one. Come with me, be my own daughter, and I will carry you home."

"Home!" echoed the lovely child; "my home is in the Summer-land. Oh, will you indeed carry me there?"

Then she folded her white wings, and nestled in the lady's bosom like a gentle dove, and was borne to a beautiful castle that overlooked the sea. The water-nixies soon forgot her, for they could not hold her memory in their little humming-bird hearts.

She was not of their race. Her wings were soft and transparent, like those of a white butterfly; and she ever declared that she had once alighted from a cloud, and been