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 it is new you will be quite contented; but after that we shall see.’

‘Yes, we shall see,’ said the wife.

A fortnight passed and the husband felt quite happy, till one day his wife startled him by saying ‘Husband, after all, this is only a cottage, very much too small for us, and the yard and the garden cover very little ground. If the fish is really a prince in disguise, he could very well give us a larger house. I should like above all things to live in a large castle built of stone. Go to the fish, and ask him to build us a castle.’

‘Ah, wife,’ he said ‘this cottage is good enough for us; what do we want with a castle’?

‘Go along,’ she replied, ‘the flounder will be sure to give what you ask.’

‘Nay; wife,’ said he, ‘the fish gave us the cottage at first, but if I go again he may be angry.’

‘Never mind,’ she replied; ‘he can do what I wish easily, and I have no doubt he will; so go and try.’

The husband rose to go with a heavy heart. He said to himself, ‘This is not right,’ and when he reached the sea he noticed that the water was now a dark blue yet very calm, so he began his old song.

‘Now then, what do you want’ said the fish, lifting his head above the water.

‘Oh dear,’ said the fisherman, in a frightened tone, ‘my wife wants to live in a great stone castle.’

‘Go home, man, and you will find her there’ was the reply.

The husband hastened home, and where the cottage had been there stood a fresh stone castle, and his wife tripped down the steps saying, ‘come in to me, and I will show you what a beautiful dwelling we now have.’

The fisherman’s wife soon becomes discontented in the the splendid castle, and her next wish is to be queen.