"Of course I can hear it; they call to him to come up and play with
them if he likes, and he clambers up over the rocks and trees to catch
one of them after another, while they swim and glide away from him, and
find it much better fun than chasing one another. It is good fun, no
doubt, for the dwarf cannot swim like them, but only scrambles about in
the most ridiculous way, with never any hope of catching one of them,
except when she lets him come near her for a moment, to plague him by
slipping away again quite out of his reach. At last he gets thoroughly
tired and discouraged and angry, while the three sisters laugh at him
and taunt him and chatter with one another, and have clearly enough
forgotten all about the gold that they are supposed to be watching.

"But see now how much brighter the fire is getting. It makes me think
that something must have happened up above the river. The sun must have
risen, or something of that sort, for everything looks clearer and the
gold shines out so bright and beautiful, that the blear-eyed dwarf
himself sees it and forgets all about trying to catch water nymphs in
wondering what it is. He asks the nymphs, and they tell him about the
ring that could be made of it if only it could be stolen from them; but
it is of no use for him to try, they say, because it is a part of the
magic of the gold that it can never be stolen except by some one who
loves nobody in the world and has sworn that he will never love
anybody, and it is clear enough that the dwarf is in love with all
three of them at this very minute. When such a strange treasure as this
was to be guarded, it was no doubt very clever to set three such
beautiful creatures as these to watch it, for if a thief were not in
love already, it is a hundred to one that he would be before he got
near enough to the gold to steal it.