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“We can’t go to the South Sea yet, and we have nothing more to show you unless a great storm comes up,” said Silver-tail.

“Perhaps she would like a wreck; there is a new one not far off,” proposed Goldfin. “A big ship went over a small one, and it sank very soon. One of Mother Carey’s chickens told me about it this morning, and I thought we might go and see it before it is all spoiled. Things that men make never last very long in our sea.”

“Yes, let us go; I long to see and touch something my people made. Your world is wonderful, but I begin to think my own is the best, for me at least,” said Nelly, as they left their pearls and swam away to the wreck, which lay down among the rocks, fast going to pieces. “Where are the people?” she asked, as they were about to float in at the broken windows and doors. She was very much afraid that she might see some poor drowned creature, and it would trouble her, though the mermaids might not care.

“Little Chick said they were all saved. It was a fruit-ship, and there were only a few passengers. One lady and child and some men went away in the boats to the shore, but left everything else behind.”

“I’m so glad!” cried Nelly, feeling her heart warm in her breast at the good news about the mother and little child.

The ship had been loaded with oranges, and the sand was covered with boxes of them broken open, and letting the fruit float to the top of the water. Much was spoiled, but some was still good, and Nelly told the mermaids to taste and see if oranges were not better than salt sea-apples. They did not like them, but played ball with the golden things till Nelly proposed that they should toss some on the shore for the fishermen’s children. That suited them; and soon the beach was covered with oranges, and the poor little people were running and screaming with delight to pick up this splendid feast.

“I wish there were some pretty things to give them; but there are only the sailors’ bags of clothes all wet, and those are not nice,” said Nelly, enjoying this game very much; for she was homesick and longed to hear human voices and see faces like her own. She wanted to do something for some one, and be loved a little. So she peeped all about the ship, and at last, in one cabin better than the others, she found the toys and clothes of the little child and its mother. She was very glad of that, and, knowing how children love their own things and cry when they are lost, she gathered up all that were not spoiled, and made Goldfin and Silver-tail help her carry them to the shore, where people had gathered to save whatever came from the wreck.

There was great rejoicing when these small treasures came ashore, and they were carried to the house where the lady and the child were. This pleased Nelly very much, and even the lazy mermaids found the new game pleasant; so they went on floating things to the beach, even the heavy bags with the poor sailors’ clothes, wet books, and boxes, which otherwise would have been lost. No one could see Goldfin and Silver-tail, but now and then some child would cry out, when Nelly lingered to look and listen through the foam and spray,–

“Oh, I saw a face over there,–a dear little face, very pretty but sad, and a hand waved at me! Could it be a mermaid?”

Then some older person would say,–

“Nonsense, child! there are no mermaids. It is only the reflection of your own face in the water. Come away, or the tide will catch you.”

If Nelly had not been partly human this could not have happened; and though no one believed in her, she took comfort in the thought that she was not all a fish, and loved to linger where she could see the children at play long after Goldfin and Silver-tail had grown tired of them and gone back to their own affairs.