good to eat; put me in the water again, and let me
go." "Come," said the Fisherman, "there is no need for so many words
about it--a fish that can talk I should certainly let go, anyhow."
With that he put him back again into the clear water, and the Flounder
went to the bottom, leaving a long streak of blood behind him.
Then the Fisherman got up and went home to his wife in the hovel.
"Husband," said the woman, "have you caught nothing today?" "No," said
the man; "I did catch a Flounder, who said he was an enchanted prince,
so I let him go again." "Did you not wish for anything first?" said
the woman. "No," said the man; "what should I wish for?" "Ah," said
the woman, "it is surely hard to have to live always in this dirty
hovel. You might have wished for a small cottage for us. Go back and
call him. Tell him we want to have a small cottage; he will certainly
give us that." "Ah," said the man, "why should I go there again?"
"Why," said the woman, "you did catch him, and you let him go again;
he is sure to do it. Go at once." The man still did not quite like to
go, but did not like to oppose his wife, either, and so went to the
sea. When he got there the sea was all green and yellow, and no longer
smooth, as before; so he stood and said--

"Flounder, Flounder, in the sea,
Come, I pray thee, here to me;
For my wife, good Ilsabil,
Wills not as I'd have her will."

Then the Flounder came swimming to him and said, "Well, what does she
want, then?" "Ah," said the man, "I did catch you, and my wife says I
really ought to have wished for something. She does not like to live
in a wretched hovel any longer; she would like to have a cottage."
"Go, then," said the Flounder, "she has it already."

When the man went home, his wife was no longer in the hovel, but,
instead of it, there stood a small cottage, and she was sitting on a
bench before the door. Then she took him by the hand and said to him,
"Just come inside, look, now isn't this a great deal better?" So they
went in, and there was a small porch, and a pretty little parlor and
bedroom and a kitchen and pantry, with the best of furniture, and
fitted up with the most beautiful things made of tin and brass,
whatsoever was wanted. And behind the cottage there was a small yard,
with hens and ducks, and a little garden with flowers and fruit.
"Look," said the wife, "is not that nice!" "Yes," said the husband,
"and so we must always think it; now we will live quite conte