Once upon a time there was a little mermaid who lived down at the bottom of the sea in a cave of pink coral. Her cheeks were as pink as the coral itself; her teeth were like a row of the pearls which hung around her neck; and her hair--which was very long and wavy--was as green as the greenest seaweed you ever saw. And though green hair sounds strange to us, it was accounted a mermaid’s greatest beauty. Her name was Wavilocks. Also she had instead of two rosy feet a funny little scaly tail with which she steered herself through the water. She was a famous swimmer. Wavilocks was a pretty little mermaid, and old Triton, her father, doted upon her and spoiled her, as foolish papas sometimes do. He gave his little daughter everything that she wanted,--everything in the wide ocean which a sea-child could wish. She had her own little coral playroom, with its toys of shell and sponge; and her pets among the fishes and curious ocean creatures. She had a living flower-garden of beautiful sea anemones, pink and purple, yellow and red. She had a little chariot all her own, in which to ride about the sea, like the grown-up ocean folk. It was of pinky, pearl-lined shell, most beautiful, and it was drawn by a span of sea-horses, the sweetest little fellows in the whole kingdom of Neptune. She had also the prettiest things for her toilet,--golden combs, with which to comb her long green hair, mirrors of polished pearl, and fans of coral, scarves of silky seaweed, and ornaments of shell. But the thing of which she was most proud was the beautiful necklace of pearls which her father had given her. All the mermaids wore lovely necklaces, but Wavilocks had the most beautiful of any. Old Triton, who knew every cave and corner of the sea, had scoured and scraped the ocean treasuries to find the finest pearls for his little daughter. She wore always about her neck a long rope of them, wound around and around, such as the Sea Queen herself could not match. Some of the pearls were as big as kernels of corn; some were as big as grapes; and a few were like hen’s eggs, as large and smooth, and twice as white as the whitest. Nobody ever saw such pearls as Wavilocks wore about her neck every day of her life. The sea-mothers found fault with doting old Triton, and said he had no business to let a little mermaid wear such gorgeous jewels. But when he told Wavilocks of this, she chuckled and said that they were jealous because they had no such jewels themselves. She may have been partly right about this, but they were right too in what they said. Now you would think that Wavilocks must have been contented and happy in her lovely home, where she had everything that a little mermaid could wish. And she was happy so long as she could have her own way. But there came a time when she could not have her own way, and then she grew sulky and discontented. For days and days she moped in her coral playroom, and nothing that poor old Triton could do made her smile.