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 contented.”  “We will think about that,” said the wife.  With that they ate something and went to bed.

Everything went well for a week or a fortnight, and then the woman said, “Hark you, husband, this cottage is far too small for us, and the garden and yard are little; the Flounder might just as well have given us a larger house.  I should like to live in a great stone castle; go to the Flounder, and tell him to give us a castle.”  “Ah, wife,” said the man, “the cottage is quite good enough; why should we live in a castle?” “What!” said the woman; “just go there, the Flounder can always do that.”  “No, wife,” said the man, “the Flounder has just given us the cottage; I do not like to go back so soon.  It might make him angry.”  “Go,” said the woman, “he can do it quite easily, and will be glad to do it; just you go to him.”

The man’s heart grew heavy, and he would not go.  He said to himself, “It is not right,” and yet he went.  And when he came to the sea the water was quite purple and dark-blue, and gray and thick, and no longer green and yellow; but it was still quiet.  And he stood there 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.”

“Well, what does she want, then?” said the Flounder.  “Alas,” said the man, half scared, “she wants to live in a great stone castle.”  “Go to it, then, she is standing before the door,” said the Flounder.

Then the man went away, intending to go home, but when he got there, he found a great stone palace, and his wife was just standing on the steps going in, and she took him by the hand and said, “Come in.”  So he went in with her, and in the castle was a great hall paved with marble, and many servants, who flung wide the doors; and the walls were all bright with beautiful hangings, and in the