et, and the old woman cooked the fish; and so
they lived, poorly enough in summer and worse in winter. Sometimes
they had a few fish to sell, but not often. In the summer evenings
they sat outside their hut on a broken old bench, and the old man
mended the holes in his ragged old net. There were holes in it a hare
could jump through with his ears standing, let alone one of those
little fishes that live in the sea. The old woman sat on the bench
beside him, and patched his trousers and complained.

Well, one day the old man went fishing, as he always did. All day long
he fished, and caught nothing. And then in the evening, when he was
thinking he might as well give up and go home, he threw his net for
the last time, and when he came to pull it in he began to think he had
caught an island instead of a haul of fish, and a strong and lively
island at that--the net was so heavy and pulled so hard against his
feeble old arms.

"This time," says he, "I have caught a hundred fish at least."

Not a bit of it. The net came in as heavy as if it were full of
fighting fish, but empty ----.

"Empty?" said Maroosia.

"Well, not quite empty," said old Peter, and went on with his tale.

Not quite empty, for when the last of the net came ashore there was
something glittering in it--a golden fish, not very big and not very
little, caught in the meshes. And it was this single golden fish which
had made the net so heavy.

The old fisherman took the golden fish in his hands.

"At least it will be enough for supper," said he.

But the golden fish lay still in his hands, and looked at him with
wise eyes, and spoke--yes, my dears, it spoke, just as if it were you
or I.

"Old man," says the fish, "do not kill me. I beg you throw me back
into the blue waters. Some day I may be able to be of use to you."

"What?" says the old fisherman; "and do you talk with a human voice?"

"I do," says the fish. "And my fish's heart feels pain like yours. It
would be as bitter to me to die as it would be to yourself."

"And is that so?" says the old fisherman. "Well, you shall not die
this time." And he threw the golden fish back into the sea.

You would have thought the golden fish would have splashed with his
tail, and turned head downwards, and swum away into the blue depths of
the sea. Not a bit of it. It stayed there with its tail slowly
flapping in the water so as to keep its head up, and it looked at the
fisherman with its wise eyes, and