Page:Hans Andersen's fairy tales (Robinson).djvu/203

THE LITTLE MERMAID 'After three hundred years we shall fly in the kingdom of Heaven!'

'We may arrive there even sooner,' whispered one of her sisters. 'We fly invisibly through the dwellings of men, where there are children; and whenever we find a good child, who gives pleasure to his parents and deserves their love, the good God shortens our time of probation. No child is aware that we are flitting about his room, and that whenever joy draws from us a smile, a year is struck out of our three hundred. But when we see a rude naughty child, we weep bitter tears of sorrow, and every tear we shed adds a day to our time of probation.'



163