The Prince and the Mermaid

Once, on a small island on the other side of the world, there lived a prince named Wilfort. Now his subjects considered Wilfort a good ruler, since generally they lived in comfort and security, but he was a man who was accustomed to getting whatever he wanted.

Prince Wilfort lived in a grand palace on top of a rocky clift. Beneath the clift lay the town and beyond that, the sea. Often as it grew dark, the Prince would stand on a balcony high in his palace, look out over the sea as the sun set. One day, just as the sun was setting, a lovely sound drifted up to him from the dusk. Never had Prince Wilfort heard anything so beautiful. He could not do anything but stand enchanted and listen until, when the sky had grown dark and filled with stars, the song ended.

Back inside his palace, the Prince called for his Chamberlain, "Nevil! Come here at once!"

The Chamberlain, a tall, bony man with a sour face and scheming eyes, entered the hall and bowed low. "What do you wish, Your Highness?"

"Did you hear that singing, Nevil? I swear there can not be another voice in all the world half as beautiful as that one.  I command that who so ever was singing tonight must come to the palace and perform in my presence."

"It shall be done as you say, Your Highness." The Chamberlain bowed again and left to do the Prince's bidding.

By the next morning the word had spread throughout the town that the Prince was seeking the mysterious singer from the preceding evening. To Benignus the Fishmonger there was no mystery, for he knew very well who the Prince had heard. He rushed through the streets of the town, past his little house on the beach to the edge of the sea and shouted, "Merrine! Merrine! Prince Wilfort heard you singing last night. He wants you to come to his palace and sing for him."

Moments later, a young woman's head rose above the surface of the sea a short distance from the shore. Her skin was the sandy color of the beach and her hair was brown like kelp. She looked up at the steep, rugged clift the palace stood upon and laughed, "If Prince Wilfort wants to hear me sing, tell him to come down to the beach. It'll be much easier for him to come down here than for me to go up there."