Breka was driven ashore, but the current bore Beowulf toward some jagged cliffs, where he desperately clung, trying to resist the fury of the waves, and using his sword to ward off the attacks of hostile mermaids, nicors (nixies), and other sea monsters.

And there was Harrie, out on a rock in the opal surf,a little scarlet mermaid, combing her hair with her thin fingers, from which the water almost washed the wedding ring.

A charming girl, whom consumption had brought to the brink of the grave, was lamented by her lover, whereupon a good-natured mermaid sang to him: "Wad ye let the bonnie May die in your hand, And the mugwort flowering i' the land?"

And there was Harrie, out on a rock in the opal surf,a little scarlet mermaid, combing her hair with her thin fingers, from which the water almost washed the wedding ring.

These are far more beautiful than the fairest of human beings, and sometimes a fisherman has seen a tender mermaid, and has listened to her song.

Here were the beautiful banks of a lake and Nature's embellishment of reeds and water plants, which, for a wonder, were left to grow in their native luxuriance, and in the midst a huge pasteboard or wooden swan, and a wooden mermaid of tasteless proportions blowing from a conchshell.