Book excerpt: An early spring morning . . . a young man fi shing in a rock-pool at the edge of the sea and exulting in his catch . . . a voice calling suddenly to him . . . the voice of a young woman who is slowly walking out from the waves . . . " I beg you, let it free again." Th is is the setting for Th e Day of the Mermaid', a story of the awakened love of that young man for the maiden who appears before him, recounted when he is old and looking back upon the day when his heart was forever captured and forever broken a lyrical and romantic tale in gentle, sensitive and poignant verse: "Why are you thus so sad?" said I. "Why do you grieve for such a thing? Is not the ocean full with fi sh? Is one worth so much sorrowing?" Th en, from her lips, there came a sigh, And, in her voice, I heard the sea: "Yes, even one is dear to me."