o at least," said his wife.

Everything went right for a week or two, and then Dame Alice said,
"Husband, there is not room enough in this cottage; the court-yard and
garden are a great deal too small. I should like to have a large stone
castle to live in; so go to the fish again, and tell him to give us a
castle."

"Wife," said the fisherman, "I don't like to go to him again, for
perhaps he will be angry. We ought to be content with the cottage."

"Nonsense!" said the wife; "he will do it very willingly. Go along, and
try."

The fisherman went; but his heart was very heavy: and when he came to
the sea, it looked blue and gloomy, though it was quite calm, and he
went close to it and said,

"O man of the sea!
Come listen to me,
For Alice my wife,
The plague of my life,
Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!"

"Well, what does she want now?" said the fish.

"Ah!" said the man very sorrowfully, "my wife wants to live in a stone
castle."

"Go home then," said the fish. "She is standing at the door of it
already." So away went the fisherman and found his wife standing before
a great castle.

"See," said she, "is not this grand?" With that they went into the
castle together and found a great many servants there and the rooms all
richly furnished and full of golden chairs and tables; and behind the
castle was a garden, and a wood half a mile long, full of sheep, and
goats, and hares, and deer; and in the court-yard were stables and
cow-houses.

"Well," said the man, "now will we live contented and happy in this
beautiful castle for the rest of our lives."

"Perhaps we may," said the wife; "but let us consider and sleep upon it
before we make up our minds": so they went to bed.

The next morning when Dame Alice awoke, it was broad daylight, and she
jogged the fisherman with her elbow and said, "Get up, husband, and
bestir yourself, for we must be king of all the land."

"Wife, wife," said the man, "why should we wish to be king? I will not
be king."

"Then I will," said Alice.

"But, wife," answered the fisherman, "how can you be king? The fish
cannot make you a king."

"Husband," said she, "say no more about it, but go and try. I will be
king!"

So the man went away, quite sorrowful to think that his wife should want
to be king. The sea looked a dark grey color, and was covered with foam
as he cried out,

"O man of the sea!
Come liste