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Atven!" she murmured, "You have found my child. Give her life! Give her life!" "Tell me what I am to do!" cried Atven, and stretched out his hands towards the beautiful young woman; but at that moment she reached the shore, and gliding between the boulders, disappeared amongst their dark shadows. Atven threw himself down beside the rock on which the Stone-maiden lay sleeping.
"But we will all love you now," cried Atven. "I will grow tall and strong to work for you, and you shall never be unhappy any more!" The Stone-maiden smiled, as she stood on the threshold of her new life. She looked up trustingly at her two friends, and the old Priest of Asgard, bending down, laid his hand upon her head with a gentle blessing.
Only the sea talks of them still; and croons them a lullaby, as soft as the centuries-old song, it sang over the cradle of the enchanted Stone-maiden. On the banks of a clear stream in one of the far away Greek islands, grew a small flowering plant, with delicate stem and transparent white flower, called "Grass of Parnassus."
Father Johannes took her hand, and gently repeated the old legend; while the Stone-maiden listened with wide-open eyes. "I remember it all now," she said, as the puzzled look faded from her face. "We had but just landed when the thick cloud came down, and a shower of stones fell upon us. My father was smitten down with all his followers, and I only was left weeping upon the shore.
A cold air seemed to breathe upon me, and I fell asleep." She spoke slowly, in the old Norse tongue, but Father Johannes had studied it, and understood her without much questioning. "Where was your mother?" he asked kindly, as Atven with smiles of delight, seized her other hand. "My mother died just before we set sail, and my father would not leave me lonely," answered the Stone-maiden sadly.
Atven was so astonished that he stared at the child-figure as if turned into a statue himself. Then he realized that his long search had been rewarded, and he fell on his knees and prayed that the Stone-maiden might be released from her prison, and given to him to be a little playfellow.
As he threaded his way beneath the shadows of the pine-trees, the sun's fingers darted through the branches and drew a golden pattern on the mossy ground under his feet; the mosquitoes hummed drowsily, the air was full of soft summer warmth and brightness but Atven's thoughts were far away with the ancient legend and the Stone-maiden.
Lifting a mass of seaweed that had completely covered one of the larger rocks, he saw before him the graceful form of a little Stone-maiden! There she lay, as though quietly sleeping, her long dress falling in straight folds to her feet, her rippled hair spreading about her. One small hand grasped a chain upon her neck, the other was embedded in the rock on which she was lying.
He grieved for her so much that tears rolled slowly down his cheeks, and as they touched the stone, the great boulder shook and crumbled, and a shudder passed over the figure of the Stone-maiden. She seemed to Atven to sigh gently, and half open her eyes; but in a moment they closed again; the rock settled into its place, and everything was motionless. "To-morrow!
They went down together to the shore; and when Father Johannes saw the figure of the sleeping child, he took out of his bark basket, a little jar of water from the Church Well, and sprinkled it over her. The Stone-maiden stirred and opened her eyes.
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