“One beautiful summer morning, shortly before sunrise, the young Irishman Dick Fitzgerald stood on the seashore near Smerwick harbor. The sun began to rise from behind the huge rock and with its red rays drove away the gray fog that still lay over the waves. Soon the entire sea shone in the sun, like a huge mirror, into which the surrounding shores calmly looked.
Dick delightedly admired the wonderful picture of the sunrise, and he himself thought: “How sad it is to look at all this alone, when there is not a living soul nearby with whom one could share a dear impression, convey one’s thoughts, one’s feelings, and all around me,” he said, looking around, “everything is empty, not a living soul, only an echo responded, perhaps, to my words...”
And he suddenly stopped. Not far from him, at the foot of the cliff, he saw a woman of dazzling beauty; she sat on the shore and slowly, gracefully raising her hand, white as snow, combed her long, bright green hair with a golden comb.
Dick, while still a child, heard from his mother that if a sea maiden (and he, of course, immediately realized that this was none other than a sea maiden) was taken away from her little pointed cap, then the maiden lost the ability to return to her underwater kingdom until her caps were returned to her. A plan immediately matured in Dick’s head: to quietly sneak up to the sea maiden and take possession of the cap lying next to her on the sand. Invented - done.
But as soon as Dick had time to hide his cap in his pocket, the sea maiden turned in his direction, then covered her face with her hands and began to cry bitterly. Dick, who understood very well that the reason for these tears was the poor fairy’s thought of eternal separation from her homeland, sat closer to her, took her hand and began to console her as best he could. But the fairy continued to cry as before; however, the caresses took their toll: she finally raised her head, looked at Dick and said to him:
- Man, please tell me, do you want to eat me?
- Eat? - Dick asked in surprise. - Yes, have mercy! Why did this come to your mind? Is it really the fish that put people in such a bad light in your eyes?
- So what do you want to do with me, if not eat me? - the fairy asked him, not taking her eyes off his face.
- What? - Dick repeated. - Here's what. Tell me: do you want to be my wife? And if you agree, then here’s my word of honor that no further than this evening, you will bear my name!
- What is money? — the sea maiden asked in surprise.
- ABOUT! Money is a thing that is very good to have when you need something or want to not deny yourself anything.
“Even without that, I didn’t have to deny myself anything: whatever I wanted, I just had to order the fish, and they would immediately do it.”
After this conversation on the shore, Dick took his bride home and married her that same evening.
Dick and his wife lived happily ever after: he succeeded and was happy in everything, and all her homework was fussing and boiling in her hands, as if she had lived all her life on earth between people, and not between strange creatures of the underwater kingdom. Three years later, Dick already had three children: two boys and one girl. We can say for sure that he would happily live his whole life with a sweet fairy, if a person could not forget about prudent precautions in happiness. But alas! - The more Dick lived with his wife, the more he forgot about her origin and that she might someday have a desire to return again to her homeland. He didn’t even bother to hide her hat somewhere away, but simply threw it under a pile of old nets that lay in a dark corner of his hut.
One day, when Dick was not at home, his wife, who strictly monitored cleanliness, wanted to take out everything unnecessary from the hut and tidy it up better for her husband’s arrival. She went up to the old nets lying in the corner, moved them from their place and suddenly saw her expensive magic cap on the floor. Thousands of new thoughts and old memories immediately swarmed into her head; she thought about her father, about her friends, about her homeland... Then her husband, Dick, and the little children, who still so needed their mother’s affection and care, came to her memory. However, she picked up her cap, turned it over in her hands, went up to the cradle where her youngest son slept, kissed him, said goodbye to the rest of the children and, consoling herself with the thought that she could go to sea only for a while and always return to her dear Dick, slowly headed towards the shore.
Dick returned home in the evening and, not seeing his wife, began asking his little daughter about her, but she could not tell him anything. Then he went to the neighbors and learned from them that they had seen his wife walking along the shore and that she had some kind of strange cap on her head. At this point he rushed to the corner of his hut, began to rummage between the old nets and, not finding the treasured hat, guessed what was the matter.
Separation from the fairy was a terrible blow for Dick. He could not be consoled and never wanted to hear about marriage, confident that his wife and the mother of his children should someday return to him.
But year after year passed, and the sea princess still did not come ashore. No one has seen her since she disappeared, but the memory of the kind, helpful and gentle fairy still lives among the inhabitants of the vicinity of Smerwick harbor.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru