coming nearer, until, if no one frightens Madame Puss away, she will
keep her yellow eye fixed on the eye that she has caught, until the bird
flies close to her and is caught.

This is called "charming a bird." And the truth must be that poor
birdie, after catching sight of that great, shining eye, does not see
Madame Puss herself, but only the bright eye, and being unable to look
away, flies nearer and nearer the strange, glittering light, until
Madame Puss makes a spring, and all is over.

[Illustration: "WHITE FACES SEEMED TO RISE AND RIDE ATOP OF THE FOAMING
BILLOWS"]

Just so, it is said, the sailors cannot look away from the fair,
wonderful creatures tossing their rich hair, beckoning wildly, singing
and singing with a sweetness that is not natural or earthly, until, what
with the beauty and luring, and voices of honey, the poor sailormen are
close against the rocks, and do not seem to know that they are charmed
or harmed when the waters close softly over them.

I do not know whether I have ever seen a mermaid or not. But when I took
that dangerous voyage up into the storm circle, I saw strange shapes
that I never saw before, and heard sounds that were new to my ear. Two
or three times I thought I saw streaming hair, and white faces seemed to
rise and ride atop of the foaming billows.

But when one is very much excited, will not imagination produce almost
any kind of an object that happens to come into the mind? Ah, I am
afraid so. Still, there are both Folks and fishes that believe in the
mermaids and their songs, and what am I that I should dare dispute them!