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The Ship of Dreams
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GRANDMAMA sat by the fire knitting. Outside the wind blew the yellow-beech leaves in clouds across the lawn, and the rain tapped on the window-panes. Susan sat on a hassock at Grandmama's knee.
It had rained since early morning and Susan had not been allowed out. She was tired of being indoors all day, not being able to visit her friends, the brown owl Diogenes, and the goldfish in the fountain. There was no one in the house to play with. Grandmama had read her all her favorite fairy stories.
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"Did you ever see a fairy?" asked Susan suddenly. "I was thinking of them this morning at lessons, and did wish one would come out of the ink-pot."
"Yes, Susan, I remember seeing one when I was small. I was walking along a country road with my brothers and my cousin Matilda, and on the top of a high wall was a little man dressed in yellow leaves. I danced about and clapped my hands, calling to the others, but when they came running to look—he was gone! And once, by the seashore, I was sitting on a rock looking down into a little pool where there were starfish and crabs and tufts of red seaweed. The sand at the bottom of the pool was golden, and from under some seaweed swam a tiny mermaid, with a tail like a fish. She was all green with blue hair, and a string of red-coral beads round her neck. She was not longer than my finger. As she rose to the top of the water she held out her hand, and in it was a large pearl. She called out to me in a high, silvery voice: 'This is for you, O mortal, a gift from the sea!' And she gave me this pearl. It was made into a ring by a wise man with horn spectacles.
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"I wonder if we can bring the little mermaid here for you to see! We must have a bowl of water. Run and ask Jenkins to give you that one with fish on it from the cupboard shelf. I had it for bread and milk when I was a little girl."
When Susan came back with the bowl, Grandmama was sitting in her great armchair, looking so wise in her tortoise-shell spectacles. Susan thought of the wise man who made the ring.
Grandmama took the bowl from Susan, and slipping the ring from her finger, she dropped it into the water. Susan leaned over the bowl, and as the ring touched the bottom the water clouded over, and turned green, and then blue, and then rose-color; little waves began to lap against the sides of the bowl, the water became clear once more, and in the place of the pearl a little mermaid was standing on the very tip of her tail, holding out her hand
