age.'

'Go home, then,' said the flounder; 'she has it.'

So the man went home, and there was his wife no longer in the hut, but
in its place was a beautiful cottage, and his wife was sitting in front
of the door on a bench. She took him by the hand and said to him, 'Come
inside, and see if this is not much better.' They went in, and inside
the cottage was a tiny hall, and a beautiful sitting-room, and a bedroom
in which stood a bed, a kitchen and a dining-room all furnished with
the best of everything, and fitted up with every kind of tin and copper
utensil. And outside was a little yard in which were chickens and ducks,
and also a little garden with vegetables and fruit trees.

'See,' said the wife, 'isn't this nice?'

'Yes,' answered her husband; 'here we shall remain and live very
happily.'

'We will think about that,' said his wife.

With these words they had their supper and went to bed. All went well
for a week or a fortnight, then the wife said:

'Listen, husband; the cottage is much too small, and so is the yard and
the garden; the flounder might just as well have sent us a larger house.
I should like to live in a great stone castle. Go down to the flounder,
and tell him to send us a castle.'

'Ah, wife!' said the fisherman, 'the cottage is quite good enough; why
do we choose to live in a castle?'

'Why?' said the wife. 'You go down; the flounder can quite well do
that.'

'No, wife,' said the man; 'the flounder gave us the cottage. I do not
like to go to him again; he might take it amiss.'

'Go,' said his wife. 'He can certainly give it us, and ought to do so
willingly. Go at once.'

The fisherman's heart was very heavy, and he did not like going. He said
to himself, 'It is not right.' Still, he went down.

When he came to the sea, the water was all violet and dark-blue, and
dull and thick, and no longer green and yellow, but it was still smooth.

So he stood there and said:

'Once a prince, but changed you be Into a flounder in the sea. Come! for
my wife, Ilsebel, Wishes what I dare not tell.'

'What does she want now?' said the flounder.

'Ah!' said the fisherman, half-ashamed, 'she wants to live in a great
stone castle.'

'Go home; she is standing before the door,' said the flounder.

The fisherman went home and thought he would find no house. When he came
near, there stood a great stone palace, and his wife was standing on the
steps, about to enter. She took him by the hand and said,