“The wedding spectacle was certainly a grand one, for the Ocean Monarch had ordered the greatest fireworks in his kingdom in honor of the event. The sea blazed up as though it were burning. Flames seemed to leap and flare up everywhere, and thousands of brilliant colors mixed and trembled in its depths. The phosphorescence was wonderful, and wherever the eye could reach, the brilliant lights shone and sparkled. The Moon sprites were amazed at such magnificence. The night was as brilliant and beautiful as day; and they felt that the wonders of the Earth world were great indeed. “Just then a messenger arrived from her Imperial Majesty of the Moon, saying that she had watched her workmen rescuing the maiden, and had seen the wedding festival and the splendid illumination, and before recalling her little people to the Moon, she wished to give the bride a present. The wicked Gnome King had tried to ruin the playground of the mermaids, but she would restore it, making it more interesting and fascinating than ever. “It was a royal gift the Moon Queen gave. She said that henceforth the beach should be enchanted. The hideous stones the gnomes had thrown should not ruin it after all, but should make it more precious to the world, for they should all turn to shining jewels. She chose to make the white pebbles the loveliest of them all, and so change them that the sea people could never forget her. These stones shone as clear as crystal, and in the pure depths of each one there trembled a moon-ray, a memento of her crystal kingdom. This brilliant ray glistened like a diamond, caught and held a prisoner, and was from that day called the moonstone. But it was hard indeed to choose the prettiest of the beach jewels. For opals clear as water, and with fire from the sea, sparkled beside the moonstones; sardonyx, chrysoprase, and emerald, jasper, aquamarine, and topaz, were piled so high that the beach was soon most widely known. “The Earth people come in hundreds to seek these treasures, making them into precious necklaces and charms. But though they carry thousands and thousands away with them each day, the mermaids smile and do not mind at all, because the Moon-ladder, uncoiling every night in sparkling brilliancy, reaches down from the silver palace and touches the beach like a magician’s wand, and the mermaids know that so long as the shining steps of brilliant silver shall rest upon these sands, just so long will the beach continue enchanted, and splendid jewels be formed in such glittering quantities that they will last for ever.” CHAPTER VIII THE LOST OCEAN [Illustration: (unlabelled)] The little company seemed well pleased with the explanation of the jewelled beach, but as soon as the messenger ceased, they asked for the explanation of the trackless sands. “That is a longer story; shall I tell it now?” was the reply.