3. He begs the children to call their mother once more, for he thinks that childish voices, wild with pain, may induce her to come. 4. He feels discouraged. 5. He tells how she became alarmed and left them at Easter time to return to her church and pray, that she might save the soul she feared she was losing. 6. The father and children had come on shore to find their mother. She was seen praying in the church, working at her spinning wheel at home, happy but apparently not wholly forgetful of her family in the sea, for she sighed and dropped a tear as she looked over the sand to the sea. 7. The father feels that his wife is cruel and faithless and that she has deserted, forever, himself and his family, the kings of the sea. IV. _The Characters._ Question the children till they see clearly the persons. 1. The principal character is the deserted merman, a king of the sea. Ought he to expect his wife to stay with him? 2. The wife, a human being who has loved a merman, and who has a family of sea children, but who has suddenly become awakened to the danger to her soul. Is she selfish? Ought she to have forsaken her family? Can she really be happy away from her husband and family? 3. The children. How many were there? How old were they? Were there both boys and girls? Do you think Mr. Reese had a clear idea of the family when he drew the picture (page 181)? There must have been at least three, for it is said that the mother tended the youngest well; at least one girl, for the mother sighed for the strange eyes of a little mermaiden. 4. The priest. V. _Pictures._ Two series of pictures are kept side by side all the time; one of the land, and the other of the sea. Try to create a vivid scene from each.