“Knowing that she could never reach her sisters alone, and enchanting all the mortals who tried to rescue her, the Gnome King had no guard to watch the maiden. She was left entirely alone upon a big rock overlooking the ocean. The wicked king came at rare intervals to see if she would consent to marry him, but otherwise she was left undisturbed. [Illustration: “_A glimmering figure sitting on a high cliff._” (Page 106)] “The Moon sprites, however, were not affected by the King’s enchantments, so they had no difficulty in reaching her. Suddenly the mermaid saw a gleam of brilliant silver flooding the darkness behind her, and in a moment she was surrounded by a thousand little silver-dressed creatures. At the same moment the Moon sprites caught sight of a glimmering figure of matchless beauty sitting on a high cliff. The maiden was a vision of loveliness. Long, waving, golden hair floated about her, and her eyes were the color of the sea. She held a lute in her hand; as her fingers moved softly across it, it gave forth a weird but beautiful sound, and to this accompaniment she sang charmingly. Quickly the Moon sprites told her of the plan for rescuing her, and joyfully she listened. “They carefully suspended the silver ladder from her mountain cliff. Holding it tight between them to steady it, they flung it swiftly down until its brilliant steps touched the trembling water. At this moment they heard a faint noise like rumbling thunder, and the affrighted maiden bade them hurry with their work, as it was the signal that the Gnome King would soon visit her. In a twinkling they seized the maiden in their arms, and carried her down the brilliant steps. They were not a moment too soon, for hardly had they placed the maiden in her bridegroom’s arms and picked up their ladder, when the Gnome King and his legion of wicked gnomes were swarming on the mountain-top. “The rage of the wicked King was fearful to see, but it was useless. He could not regain the mermaid and he could not harm a Moon sprite; but in his anger he pelted the beach with stones, venting his fury in destroying its beauty. Small but ugly, they fell in thousands, covering the golden yellow of the sand, and hiding its glistening splendor. Thus he showered his spite upon the beautiful playground of the mermaids. “But the Sea King’s daughters were too happy over the return of their beloved sister to fret very much. True, their charmingly beautiful beach seemed ruined, but their beloved sister was home again. Thousands, indeed millions, of little stones were piled about in ugly confusion, and marred the soft, bright sand the sea people so loved, but they were powerless to prevent it. The Moon sprites went back to their work of fastening the moon-ladder to the Earth, and the Sea King invited them to remain for his daughter’s wedding the next night.