And a little ant at once began to crawl over the high wall . How glad the ant was to be out of the giant 's castle , holding fast the crown which had shrunk into almost nothing , as she herself had done , but grew quite big again when the ant exclaimed : ` Deer , come to me ! ' Surely no deer ever ran so swiftly as that one ! On and on she went , bounding over rivers and crashing through tangles till she reached the sea . Here she cried for the last time : ` Fish , come to me ! ' And , plunging in , she swam along the bottom as far as the palace , where the queen and all the fishes gathered together awaiting her . The hours since she had left had gone very slowly -- as they always do to people that are waiting -- and many of them had quite given up hope . ' I am tired of staying here , ' grumbled a beautiful little creature , whose colours changed with every movement of her body , ' I want to see what is going on in the upper world . It must be months since that fish went away . ' ` It was a very difficult task , and the giant must certainly have killed her or she would have been back long ago , ' remarked another . ` The young flies will be coming out now , ' murmured a third , ` and they will all be eaten up by the river fish ! It is really too bad ! ' When , suddenly , a voice was heard from behind : ` Look ! look ! what is that bright thing that is moving so swiftly towards us ? ' And the queen started up , and stood on her tail , so excited was she . A silence fell on all the crowd , and even the grumblers held their peace and gazed like the rest . On and on came the fish , holding the crown tightly in her mouth , and the others moved back to let her pass . On she went right up to the queen , who bent and , taking the crown , placed it on her own head . Then a wonderful thing happened .
Her tail dropped away or , rather , it divided and grew into two legs and a pair of the prettiest feet XXXXX the world , while her maidens , who were grouped around her , shed their scales and became girls again .
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