ted with regard to the
fisheries as his.

One day, according to custom, he had gone out fishing; and having cast
down his line from the boat and waited awhile, found it very hard to
pull up again, as if there were something very heavy at the end of it.
Imagine his astonishment when he found that what he had caught was a
great fish, with a man's head and body! When he saw that this creature
was alive, he addressed it and said, "Who and whence are you?"

"A merman from the bottom of the sea," was the reply.

The farmer then asked him what he had been doing when the hook caught
his flesh.

The other replied, "I was turning the cowl of my mother's chimney-pot,
to suit it to the wind. So let me go again, will you?"

"Not for the present," said the fisherman. "You shall serve me awhile
first." So without more words he dragged him into the boat and rowed to
shore with him.

When they got to the boat-house, the fisherman's dog came to him and
greeted him joyfully, barking and fawning on him, and wagging his tail.
But his master's temper being none of the best, he struck the poor
animal; whereupon the merman laughed for the first time.

Having fastened the boat, he went toward his house, dragging his prize
with him over the fields, and stumbling over a hillock which lay in his
way, cursed it heartily; whereupon the merman laughed for the
second time.

When the fisherman arrived at the farm, his wife came out to receive
him, and embraced him affectionately, and he received her salutations
with pleasure; whereupon the merman laughed for the third time.

Then said the farmer to the merman, "You have laughed three times, and I
am curious to know why you have laughed. Tell me, therefore."

"Never will I tell you," replied the merman, "unless you promise to take
me to the same place in the sea wherefrom you caught me, and there to
let me go free again." So the farmer made him the promise.

"Well," said the merman, "I laughed the first time because you struck
your dog, whose joy at meeting you was real and sincere. The second
time, because you cursed the mound over which you stumbled, which is
full of golden ducats. And the third time, because you received with
pleasure your wife's empty and flattering embrace, who is faithless to
you, and a hypocrite. And now be an honest man, and take me out to the
sea whence you brought me."

The farmer replied, "Two things that you have told me I have no means of
proving; namely, the