海的女儿（二）

       这个小公主喜欢听跟自己不同的人类的故事。这些人有腿，不在海里生活，他们在陆地上生活。她让祖母把她所知道的一切有关船只、城市和人类的知识告诉她。当她听到地上的花儿有好闻的香味时，她很高兴。海里的花儿一点香味也没有。当她听说天上的小鱼儿会唱歌时，她也很高兴。老太太说的是鸟儿，不过她管它们叫鱼儿，因为小公主不知道什么叫鸟儿。

　　“等你到你们满十五岁的时候，你们可以浮到海面上去。”她们的老祖母说，“你们晚上坐在那儿，看船只在身旁驶过去，你们就知道城市和人的一些事。

　　再过一年，最大的姐姐就满十五岁了，她很高兴，但其她的姐妹却不愉快。她们不能到海面上去.大姐姐说，她会把她看到的一切讲给她们听。 可是，在姐妹中谁也没有象最年幼的妹妹那样，想上去想得那么厉害。有很多夜晚，她站在开着的窗口，透过蓝色的海水，朝上凝望。她看到太阳，对她来说，太阳看起来是那么大。如果一条船从她上方的海面驶过，她会以为那是一条很大的鱼。

　　这一天来到了，最大的公主满十五岁，可以升到海面上去了。

　　她回来的时候，有许多事情要讲。

　　thelittle princess loved to hear about people who were not the same as she was. These people have feet and did not live in the sea: they lived on land. She made her grandmother tell her everything she knew about ships, cities, and men. She was very pleased when she heard that the flowers on land had a lovely smell: the flowers in the sea had no smell at all. She was very pleased, too, when she heard that the small fishes in the sky could sing. The old lady was speaking about birds, but she called them fishes because the little princesses did not know about birds.

　　"When you are fifteen years old, you can go to thetop of the sea, " their grandmother said. "You will then sit at night and see the ships go by. And you will know about cities and men. "

　　thenext year the oldest of the sisters would be fifteen. She was very happy, but the other sisters were unhappy. They could not go to the top of the sea. The oldest sister said that she would tell them about everything that she saw.

　　But none of thesisters wanted to go so much as the youngest sister wanted to go. On many nights she stood by the open window, looking up through the blue water. She could see the sun and it looked very big to her. If a ship went by up there, above her, she thought that it must be a very big fish.

　　theday now came when the oldest of the princess was fifteen and could go to the top of the sea.

　　When she came back she had many things to tell.