On a cold rocky shore there lived a fisherman. He could not even imagine that there would ever be a woman who would agree to move with him to such a gloomy place. One evening he pulled out his nets and found a girl in them. With black hair, eyes as gray as a stormy sea, and a shiny fish tail instead of legs. The storm of her eyes penetrated the fisherman's heart. At the sound of his voice, the girl stopped thrashing and fluttering, although she did not understand a word. But her eyes looked straight into his soul, and the loneliness of the fisherman captivated her more reliably than the net. And she stayed with him and loved him, although as the years passed he grew old and she did not. Rumors about this strange and unusual woman were passed from mouth to mouth until they reached the ears of a man whose business was selling all things strange and unusual .His name was F. T. Barnum, and he was looking for a mermaid.