Then they began to cross the sea. Jack, who had quite got over his fear, enjoyed the journey. The sea danced and sparkled beneath them. The moon threw a silver crest on the top of each tiny wave. Here and there were little ships sailing briskly along in the breeze. Soon they lost sight of land altogether, and then Jack thought it was glorious.
Nothing but the bright sparkling sea all round for miles. He laughed aloud for pleasure, and would have been quite happy, only for a thought—a naughty little thought—which would keep coming into his mind, and which grew and grew in spite of himself. He put up his hands to his head to keep it out, but there it was all the same, and there it remained. It was this—Why should he not ask the old man something for himself, instead of asking him about the Princess at all? Who would ever know? Why should he not ask him to make him straight and well? How pleased his mother would be if she came home that night to find her little boy a cripple no longer. How easy it would be to invent something to tell the Princess, and no one else would tell the truth. He knew it was naughty. He had promised, and he ought to keep his promise, and he thought of the Princess’s pale face and the Prince’s sad voice. And then he thought of his mother, and his own dull home, and could scarcely keep from crying.
“Listen!” said the wind-fairy. “Don’t you hear someone singing?”
Jack listened, and heard a sad sweet voice singing a song, which was more beautiful than anything he had ever heard before.
“That is a mermaid,” said the wind-fairy, “and she is singing until the ship follows the sound. Then she will gradually lead it down into a whirlpool, and there it will be swallowed up, and the poor sailors will never return to their wives and little children. But I will go and blow the ship in another direction, whether it likes it or no, until it is out of the sound of her song, and then it will go on all right. Ah! men little think, when they complain of meeting gales of wind, that it is often for their own good, and that we are blowing them away from danger, not into it.”
“A mermaid!” cried Jack. “I have never seen one. How much I should like to see her!”
“When we have gone to the ship we will go and look at her,” said the wind-fairy. Then he flew to one side, till they came to a ship full of sailors sailing quietly along, and the wind-fairy began to blow with all his might. He blew till the sea rose in great heavy waves. The ship leaned over on one side. The captain shouted. The sailors threw up the ropes, and all trembled for fear. But much against their will the ship had to be turned about and go in another direction, and the wind-fairy never left off blowing till she was many miles away from the sound of the mermaid’s song.
“Now we will go and look at the mermaid,” said he; and back they flew again to the same spot. There, beneath them, resting on the top of the waves, Jack saw a very beautiful maiden. She had sad green eyes and long green hair. When he looked closer he saw that she had a long bright tail instead of legs, but he thought her very beautiful all the same. She was still singing in a sad sleepy voice, and as he listened he began to long to jump into the sea beside her. And the longing grew so strong that he would have thrown himself into her arms at once, had not the wind-fairy seized him and flown off with him before he had time.
How pleased the wind-fairy was about the ship!
“I am so glad we came up,” he said. “A few minutes later and the mermaid would have got it, and I could have done nothing;” and he laughed for pleasure.
Then when Jack thought of the poor ship, and how nearly she had perished, and saw how glad the good little wind-man was that he had saved her, all the naughty thoughts left his mind.
“Surely,” he said to himself, “if this poor silly little wind-fairy can be so glad when he has done a good deed, I ought to be glad to help other people and not to think of myself;” and he made up his mind that whatever happened he would not desert the Princess, but would do exactly what she had told him.
On they went. Presently it began to grow very cold. In the sea beneath were great lumps of floating ice, and all sorts of strange sea monsters were springing about.
“We had better stop here, and I will get out the Princess’s fireball,” said the fairy, and he placed Jack on a great lump of floating ice. On it there sat a family of seals, and much frightened they looked when he was dropped amongst them.
“Don’t you know,” said the old seal, turning sharply to him, “that it is exceedingly rude to come into a person’s block of ice without asking leave?”
“I am very sorry, I am sure,” murmured Jack.
“Let him alone,” said another younger seal; “I am sure he is very nice-looking. Would you like me to fetch you a little fish? I dare say you’re very hungry, and I can catch you some in a moment if you like it.”
Jack had not time to refuse before an older seal turned to him and said—
“I am in want of a servant, if that’s what you are come for, and as you are a nice tidy-looking person, I don’t mind trying you; only I am very particular about my ice being bright, and the water all round it being kept clean.”
They were all crowding round him, when the wind-fairy came up,
