“‘With Him on whom you have called, dear husband,’ she answered, and we now entered the cottage together, weeping in silence.  I looked for the little corpse, almost fearing to find what I was seeking; and then it was I first learnt how all had happened.

“My wife had taken the little one in her arms, and walked out to the shore of the lake.  She there sat down by its very brink; and while she was playing with the infant, as free from all fear as she was full of delight, it bent forward on a sudden, as if seeing something very beautiful in the water.  My wife saw her laugh, the dear angel, and try to catch the image in her tiny hands; but in a moment—­with a motion swifter than sight—­she sprang from her mother’s arms, and sank in the lake, the watery glass into which she had been gazing.  I searched for our lost darling again and again; but it was all in vain; I could nowhere find the least trace of her.

“The same evening we childless parents were sitting together by our cottage hearth.  We had no desire to talk, even if our tears would have permitted us.  As we thus sat in mournful stillness, gazing into the fire, all at once we heard something without,—­a slight rustling at the door.  The door flew open, and we saw a little girl, three or four years old, and more beautiful than I can say, standing on the threshold, richly dressed, and smiling upon us.  We were struck dumb with astonishment, and I knew not for a time whether the tiny form were a real human being, or a mere mockery of enchantment.  But I soon perceived water dripping from her golden hair and rich garments, and that the pretty child had been lying in the water, and stood in immediate need of our help.

“‘Wife,’ said I, ’no one has been able to save our child for us; but let us do for others what would have made us so blessed could any one have done it for us.’

“We undressed the little thing, put her to bed, and gave her something to drink; at all this she spoke not a word, but only turned her eyes upon us—­eyes blue and bright as sea or sky—­and continued looking at us with a smile.

“Next morning we had no reason to fear that she had received any other harm than her wetting, and I now asked her about her parents, and how she could have come to us.  But the account she gave was both confused and incredible.  She must surely have been born far from here, not only because I have been unable for these fifteen years to learn anything of her birth, but because she then said, and at times continues to say, many things of so very singular a nature, that we neither of us know, after all, whether she may not have dropped among us from the moon; for her talk runs upon golden castles, crystal domes, and Heaven knows what extravagances beside.  What, however, she related with most distinctness was this:  that while she was once taking a sail with her mother on the great lake, she fell out of the boat into the water; and that when she first recovered her senses, she was here under our trees, where the gay scenes of the shore filled her with delight.