The children played on in the garden , and the youngest had the golden star on his breast , which the tree had worn on the happiest evening of its life ; and now that was past -- and the tree had passed away -- and the story too , all ended and done with . And that 's the way with all stories ! Here our Danish author ends . This is what people call sentiment , and I hope you enjoy it ! Hans , the Mermaid 's Son Translated from the Danish . In a village there once lived a smith called Basmus , who was in a very poor way . He was still a young man , and a strong handsome fellow to boot , but he had many little children and there was little to be earned by his trade . He was , however , a diligent and hard-working man , and when he had no work in the smithy he was out at sea fishing , or gathering wreckage on the shore . It happened one time that he had gone out to fish in good weather , all alone in a little boat , but he did not come home that day , nor the following one , so that all believed he had perished out at sea . On the third day , however , Basmus came to shore again and had his boat full of fish , so big and fat that no one had ever seen their like . There was nothing the matter with him , and he complained neither of hunger or thirst . He had got into a fog , he said , and could not find land again . What he did not tell , however , was where he had been all the time ; that only came out six years later , when people got to know that he had been caught by a mermaid out on the deep sea , and had been her guest during the three days that he was missing . From that time forth he went out no more to fish ; nor , indeed , did he require to do so , for whenever he went down to the shore it never failed that some wreckage was washed up , and in it all kinds of valuable things . In those days everyone took what they found and got leave to keep it , so that the smith grew more prosperous day by day . When seven years had passed since the smith went out to sea , it happened one morning , as he stood in the smithy , mending a plough , that a handsome young lad came in to him and said , ` Good-day , father ; my mother the mermaid sends her greetings , and says that she has had me for six years now , and you can keep me for as long . ' He was a strange enough boy to be six years old , for he looked as if he were eighteen , and was even bigger and stronger than lads commonly are at that age . ` Will you have a bite of bread ? ' said the smith . ` Oh , yes , ' said Hans , for that was his name .
The smith then told his wife XXXXX cut a piece of bread for him .
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