John Reed was a merchant and shipowner. Having loaded his large sloop with goods, he sailed by sea in all weathers from the shores of northern Scotland to Holland and back.
His business flourished, he quickly became rich and would have felt completely happy if...
If it weren't for unhappy love.
He fell in love with the beautiful Ellen Stewart, but was afraid to admit it to her. It seemed to him that she would never love him anyway.
And then one day, returning from a voyage at the end of April, he passionately wanted to at least look at Ellen Stewart from afar. And he knew that on the first of May she would go with her girlfriends to collect May dew - that was the custom in their area.
That day he got up early and, not knowing what to do with himself, went to wander along the seashore.
One after another, the night stars went out, the sun rose, casting a fiery path onto the water. But John Reed did not notice anything around and did not see how beautiful the sunrise was. He thought about the beautiful Ellen, and only she stood before his eyes.
While climbing a high rock, he suddenly heard someone singing. John Reed glanced at the sea, thinking maybe it was a lonely fisherman amusing himself with an early song.
No, the sea was deserted, only the wet head of a seal stuck out of the water and froze, as if the seal was also listening to the song.
Only when John Reed finally rounded the rock did he see who was singing. Young girl. She was sitting on a rock with her feet in the water. Her white shoulders and back were hidden by thick long hair. But then she rose from the stone, and then John Reed had to cover his eyes with his hand - so her scaly tail sparkled in the sun.
“Yes, it’s a mermaid!” - John Reed guessed.
And he wanted to leave unnoticed without disturbing her, when he suddenly remembered that mermaids have the magical gift of fulfilling the wishes of mortals. Maybe she will agree to give him the love of Ellen Stewart?
Quietly and unnoticed, John Reed crept up to the mermaid, but then she turned around and, seeing the man, screamed loudly. Ah, another moment and she would have slipped into the water, and then goodbye to all his dreams and hopes.
But John Reed managed to hug her tightly, and although the mermaid struggled out of his arms with a force no less than that of a seal, he did not let her out of his arms. His arms ached from the tension, and in the end the mermaid would have broken away from him, but only the thought of the beautiful Ellen added strength to him, and he did not give up.
The mermaid got tired of fighting and asked:
- What do you want from me, human?
And in her weak voice, both the tenderness of a songbird and the coldness of the depths of the sea sounded simultaneously.
- Three wishes come true! - John Reed answered quickly, remembering that this is how this question should be answered.
“Name them,” said the mermaid.
“My father,” John began, “was a sailor like me.” But he drowned in the sea. So, my first wish is that none of my friends, nor I myself, should know such an end. My second wish: for my business to continue to prosper. And third: so that Ellen Stewart, whom I love dearly, will return my love.
“Let me go, and everything will be done,” said the mermaid.
John Reed unclenched his hands, and the mermaid, with only a flick of her shiny tail, disappeared into the sea. He wiped the sea spray from his face and, inspired by hope, climbed to the top of the green hill, where he hoped to meet the beautiful Ellen.
And - lo and behold! - she was already there and sitting on the grass with her girlfriend right at that place, which, by the way or inopportunely, was called Lover's Leap.
Well, it seems that fate has begun to smile on the brave sailor.
- Yes, this is John Reed! What a successful meeting! - Ellen's friend exclaimed. “And Ellen just told me what a dream she had last night.” Imagine, she dreamed that she was collecting May dew, but the grass and bushes were completely dry, and she collected only a few drops, when suddenly she heard someone singing on the shore, over there, behind the rocks. She went down and saw you sleeping on the shore near the sea, and a beautiful maiden next to you. Ellen was afraid that you would be carried away by the surf, but then you woke up, got up and began collecting dew with her. She wanted to get a better look at the beautiful maiden, but she was already far out to sea, rocking on the waves like a white seagull. And then Ellen suddenly heard: drip-drip-drip - it was dew falling from the bush that you were shaking, right into her bucket.
“That’s all true,” Ellen confirmed. “But the strangest thing is not this, but when we passed these rocks this morning, we heard exactly the same song as I did in my dream. And now all you have to do is fill my bucket with dew!
And she laughed, and John Reed laughed with her.
“Believe me, it was a magical song,” he said. “And I know who sang it.” Mermaid! I spoke to her.
— Did you talk to the mermaid? — Ellen’s friend exclaimed in horror. - Oh, unfortunate one! Do you know that the last time your father saw her near our shore was before that terrible storm in which he drowned.
John noticed how Ellen turned pale at these words of her friend, and immediately said:
- Don't be afraid for me! The mermaid is not scary to me. I conquered her, and she promised to fulfill my three wishes.
And he told them everything. True, not quite everything: he hid what the third wish was. But from the twinkle in Ellen's eyes, he saw that she guessed. She listened to him and admired him, imagining the danger he endured for her sake, and love crept into her heart.
They returned home together, hand in hand.
And on the next May Day, Ellen and John celebrated their wedding.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru