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THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE. |
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the water was now a dark blue, yet very calm, so he began his
old song—
" Flounder, flounder, in the sea, Come, I pray, and talk to me; For my wife, Dame Isabel, Wishes what I fear to tell."
" Now then, what do you want ?" said the fish, lifting his head above the water.
" Oh, dear f said the fisheiman, 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 great stone castle, and his wife tripped down the steps, saying, " Come with me, and I will show you what a beautiful dwelling we have now."
So she took him by the hand, and led him into the castle, through halls of marble, while numbers of servants stood ready to usher them through folding doors into rooms where the walls were hung with tapestry, and the furniture of silk and gold. From these they went into other rooms equally elegant, where crystal looking-glasses hung on the walls, and the chairs and tables were of rosewood and marble. The soft carpets sunk beneath the footstep, and rich ornaments were arranged about the rooms.
Outside the castle was a large courtyard, in which were stables and cow-sheds, horses and carnages, all of the most expensive kind. Beyond this, was a beautiful garden, full of rare flowers and delicious fruit, besides several acres of field and park land, in which deer, oxen, and sheep were grazing—all, indeed, that the heart could wish was here.
" Well," said the wife, " is not this beautiful ?"
"Yes," replied her husband, " and you will think so as long as the humour lasts, and then, I suppose, you will want something more."
" We must thii k about that," she replied, and then they went to bed.
Not many mornings after this the fisherman's wife rose early. It was just daybreak, and she stood looking out, with her arms akimbo, over the beautiful country that lay before her. Her husband did not stir, and presently she exclaimed, " Get up, hus- |
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