Far out in the sea the water is very, very blue. You can see through it like glass. Far down in the water there are beautiful trees and plants. These trees and plants are so far from the top of the water that no one can see them. Fishes go in and out of the trees just like birds. This is the place where the Sea Kings city is.
The Sea Kings wife died many years before, so his old mother looked after him. She loved the Sea Kings six children very much, and they loved their grandmother, too. These six children were beautiful princesses. The youngest princess was the most beautiful: her eyes were as blue as the sea and her body was white like a rose. But, like all her sisters, she had no feet. The top of her body was like a girls body; and the rest of her body was like the body of a fish.
The six princesses often played all day in the big rooms inside the Sea Kings house. Beautiful flowers grew out of the walls on all sides of them. When the windows were opened, fishes would go into the rooms just like birds come into our rooms. But the fishes were braver than birds They went up to the little princesses to eat food from their hands.
In front of the Sea Kings house there was a large garden full of red plants and blue plants. The flowers of these plants were like the burning sun. There was a blue light over the garden; you would think that you were up in the sky — not down in the sea.
Each of the little princesses had her own little garden inside the large garden. They could plant the flowers, which they themselves liked the most. The youngest princess planted red flowers in the garden, and she planted a red tree near the flowers. She was not at all like her sisters.
The little princess loved to hear about people who were not the same as she was. These people have feet and did not live in the sea: they lived on land. She made her grandmother tell her everything she knew about ships, cities, and men. She was very pleased when she heard that the flowers on land had a lovely smell: the flowers in the sea had no smell at all. She was very pleased, too, when she heard that the small fishes in the sky could sing. The old lady was speaking about birds, but she called them fishes because the little princesses did not know about birds.
"When you are fifteen years old, you can go to the top of the sea, " their grandmother said. "You will then sit at night and see the ships go by. And you will know about cities and men. "
The next year the oldest of the sisters would be fifteen. She was very happy, but the other sisters were unhappy. They could not go to the top of the sea. The oldest sister said that she would tell them about everything that she saw.
But none of the sisters wanted to go so much as the youngest sister wanted to go. On many nights she stood by the open window, looking up through the blue water. She could see the sun and it looked very big to her. If a ship went by up there, above her, she thought that it must be a very big fish.
The day now came when the oldest of the princess was fifteen and could go to the top of the sea.
