promise she had made, might espy well enough that she was ever on the point of making the revelation, and that it was only by a sort of gay self-denial that she repressed her longing, as children are wont to do when they defer to the last their choicest dainties. Bertalda and Huldbrand shared this delightful feeling, looking forward with impatient hope to Undine’s message. Just at that moment some of the guests pressed Undine to sing. The time was opportune, and when her lute had been brought to her, she sang as followeth:
Fair was the morn and gay the flowers,
The grasses sweet and tall:
But there on the verge of the glassy lake
Was a pearl outshining all.
What glitters there amid the grass?
A blossom white as snow?
Or is it a gem of Heavenly light
Fallen to earth below?
’Tis an infant child, so frail and dear,
And while it dreams it plays
With rosy buds and happy flowers,
And grasps the morning rays.
Ah, whence, poor stranger, art thou here
From far and unknown strand?
The waves of the lake have borne thee on
To an unfamiliar land.
Nay put not forth, O little child,
Thy tiny hands outspread:
No answering hand will meet thine own
Voiceless that flowery bed.
