Violet Jacob > Stories told by the miller

THE STORY OF THE WATER-NIX
9
close under the walls to hear him. He sang of
the sea, and there was something in his voice
that reminded you of the wind droning in the
rigging. (How grandmother knew that I don’t
know, for she wasn’t there to hear him ; but
she had once been in a ship off the coast of
Jutland, so I suppose she guessed it.)
“ Out and home and out again,
As the tide rolls heavily,
With the ship to steer and the fog to fear,
By the grey banks near the sea.
“ Hand to the helm and heart to the blast,
And face to the driving rain,
And the sea runs high to the glowering sky
As we sail for the North again.
“ Hark to the mermaids off the shore,
As they sing so bonnilie
Through the rocks and caves to the sounding
waves
In the grey lands out at sea,
In the caves across the sea.”
She had never heard such words or such a
tune in her life, and she rose, head and shoulders,
out of the water, crying to the pedlar to sing it
again. But when he saw the yellow hearts of
the water-lilies round her head, he took them
for gold, and he leaned over the little wall and
2