ith golden chairs and tables, and crystal chandeliers hanging
from the ceiling; and all the rooms had carpets. And the tables were
covered with eatables and the best wine for any one who wanted them. And
at the back of the house was a great stable-yard for horses and cattle,
and carriages of the finest; besides, there was a splendid large garden,
with the most beautiful flowers and fine fruit trees, and a pleasance
full half a mile long, with deer and oxen and sheep, and everything that
heart could wish for.

"There!" said the wife, "is not this beautiful?"

"Oh yes," said the man, "if it will only last we can live in this fine
castle and be very well contented."

"We will see about that," said the wife, "in the meanwhile we will sleep
upon it." With that they went to bed.

The next morning the wife was awake first, just at the break of day, and
she looked out and saw from her bed the beautiful country lying all
round. The man took no notice of it, so she poked him in the side with
her elbow, and said,

"Husband, get up and just look out of the window. Look, just think if we
could be king over all this country. Just go to your fish and tell him
we should like to be king."

"Now, wife," said the man, "what should we be kings for? I don't want to
be king."

"Well," said the wife, "if you don't want to be king, I will be king."

"Now, wife," said the man, "what do you want to be king for? I could not
ask him such a thing."

"Why not?" said the wife, "you must go directly all the same; I must be
king."

So the man went, very much put out that his wife should want to be king.

"It is not the right thing to do--not at all the right thing," thought
the man. He did not at all want to go, and yet he went all the same.

And when he came to the sea the water was quite dark grey, and rushed
far inland, and had an ill smell. And he stood and said,

"O man, O man!--if man you be,
Or flounder, flounder, in the sea--
Such a tiresome wife I've got,
For she wants what I do not."

"Now then, what does she want?" said the fish.

"Oh dear!" said the man, "she wants to be king."

"Go home with you, she is so already," said the fish.

So the man went back, and as he came to the palace he saw it was very
much larger, and had great towers and splendid gateways; the herald
stood before the door, and a number of soldiers with kettle-drums and
trumpets.

And when he came inside everything was of marble and g