When she was digging on the beach,

Guess what Maisie found?

It was something small and shiny,

It was smooth and flat and round.

It sparkled green in the sunshine,

It twinkled blue in the shade.

No bigger than a fingernail,

It gleamed on Maisie's spade.

Her brother said, "It's a broken shell,"

Her mother said, "it's a pebble-flake."

Her father said, "I think it's dead,

Throw it away, for goodness' sake."

Maisie said, "No, it's a fallen scale."

"From a fish, you mean?" asked Dad.

 "No, not from a fish, from a mermaid.

She's lost it.  She'll be sad."

"There's no such thing as a mermaid!"

Her brother said, with a grin,

"It's only a bit of seaside stuff

Just put it in the bin!"

Maisie frowned and shook her head.

"It's a mermaid's; she'll come back."

She put the scale on a rocky shelf

And covered it with wrack.

"I don't want a seagull to take it," she said, 

Or a crab or a dab or a whale,

I just want the mermaid to find it,

And put it back in her tail."

Mother called, "the tide's coming in!

It's time we were getting home."

"Just one more minute!" said Maisie,

"I saw something in the foam!"

Did a green eye wink in the water-glint?

Was that the flick of a tail?

Did a white hand wave from the rock shelf

As it scooped up a missing scale?

"It's only the spindrift," her brother said,

"There's nothing else it could be."

But Maisie smiled as she waved good bye

To the friendly gleam in the sea.