VNDINE. 35
stole along the shore in the obscuritj' ; and hearing nothing around me but a sort of wild uproar, I perceived at last that the noise came from a point, exactly where a beaten footpath disappeared. I now caught the light in your cottage, and ventured hither, where I cannot sufficiently thank my heavenly Father, that, after preserving me from the waters, He has also conducted me to such pious people as you are ; and the more so, as it is difficult to say whether I shall ever behold any other persons in this world except you four."
"What mean you by those words?" asked the fisher- man.
"Can you tell me, then, how long this commotion ot the elements will last ?" replied the priest. " I am old ; the stream of my life may easily sink into the ground and vanish, before the overflowing of that forest-stream shall subside. And, indeed, it is not impossible that more and more of the foaming waters may rush in between you and yonder forest, until you are so far removed from the rest of the world, that your small fishing-canoe may be inca- pable of passing over, and the inhabitants of the continent entirely forget you in your olr Age amid the dissipation and diversions of life."
At this melancholy foreboding the old lady shrank back with a feeling of alarm, crossed herself, and cried, " God forbid !"
But the fisherman looked upon her with a smile, and said, " What a strange being is man ! Suppose the worst to happen : our state would not be different, at any rate your own would not, dear wife, from what it is at present. For have you, these many years, been farther from home than the border of the forest ? And have you seen a single human being beside Undine and mj'self ? It is now only a short time since the coming of the knight and the priest. They will remain with us, even if we do become a forgotten island; so, after all, you will be a gainer."
