Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks by William Elliot Griffis, Fiction, Fairy Tales & Folklore - Country & Ethnic

These they would bring to their queen, or with them richly adorn themselves. Thus the Mermaid Queen and her maidens made a court of beauty -- famed wherever mermaids and merrymen lived. And they often talked of human maids. "How funny it must be to wear clothes!" said one. "Well, I should like to be a real woman for a while, just to try it, and see how it feels to walk on legs," said another, rather demurely -- as if afraid the other mermaids might not like her remark. Out rang a lusty chorus, "No! No! Horrible! What an idea! Who wouldn't be a mermaid?"