Hans, the Mermaid's Son
Translated from the Danish.



In a village there once lived a smith called Basmus, who was in a
very poor way. He was still a young man, and a strong handsome
fellow to boot, but he had many little children and there was
little to be earned by his trade. He was, however, a diligent
and hard-working man, and when he had no work in the smithy he
was out at sea fishing, or gathering wreckage on the shore.

It happened one time that he had gone out to fish in good
weather, all alone in a little boat, but he did not come home
that day, nor the following one, so that all believed he had
perished out at sea. On the third day, however, Basmus came to
shore again and had his boat full of fish, so big and fat that no
one had ever seen their like. There was nothing the matter with
him, and he complained neither of hunger or thirst. He had got
into a fog, he said, and could not find land again. What he did
not tell, however, was where he had been all the time; that only
came out six years later, when people got to know that he had
been caught by a mermaid out on the deep sea, and had been her
guest during the three days that he was missing. From that time
forth he went out no more to fish; nor, indeed, did he require to
do so, for whenever he went down to the shore it never failed
that some wreckage was washed up, and in it all kinds of valuable