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, 'Come inside.'

Then he went with her, and inside the castle was a large hall with a
marble floor, and there were heaps of servants who threw open the great
doors, and the walls were covered with beautiful tapestry, and in the
apartments were gilded chairs and tables, and crystal chandeliers hung
from the ceiling, and all the rooms were beautifully carpeted. The best
of food and drink also was set before them when they wished to dine. And
outside the house was a large courtyard with horse and cow stables and a
coach-house--all fine buildings; and a splendid garden with most
beautiful flowers and fruit, and in a park quite a league long were deer
and roe and hares, and everything one could wish for,

'Now,' said the wife, 'isn't this beautiful?'

'Yes, indeed,' said the fisherman. 'Now we will stay here and live in
this beautiful castle, and be very happy.'

'We will consider the matter,' said his wife, and they went to bed.

The next morning the wife woke up first at daybreak, and looked out of
the bed at the beautiful country stretched before her. Her husband was
still sleeping, so she dug her elbows into his side and said:

'Husband, get up and look out of the window. Could we not become the
king of all this land? Go down to the flounder and tell him we choose to
be king.'

'Ah, wife!' replied her husband, 'why should we be king? _I_ don't want
to be king.'

'Well,' said his wife, 'if you don't want to be king, _I_ will be king.
Go down to the flounder; I will be king.'

'Alas! wife,' said the fisherman, 'why do you want to be king? I can't
ask him that.'

'And why not?' said his wife. 'Go down at o