doesn’t want to live in our miserable hovel any longer, she wants a pretty cottage.’
‘Go home again then,’ said the Flounder, ‘she has her wish fully.’
The Man went home and found his Wife no longer in the old hut, but a pretty little cottage stood in its place, and his Wife was sitting on a bench by the door.
She took him by the hand, and said, ‘Come and look in here—isn’t this much better?’
They went inside and found a pretty sitting-room, and a bedroom with a bed in it, a kitchen and a larder furnished with everything of the best in tin and brass and every possible requisite. Outside there was a little yard with chickens and ducks, and a little garden full of vegetables and fruit.
‘Look!’ said the Woman, ‘is not this nice?’
‘Yes,’ said the Man, ‘and so let it remain. We can live here very happily.’
‘We will see about that,’ said the Woman. With that they ate something and went to bed.
Everything went well for a week or more, and then said the Wife, ‘Listen, husband, this cottage is too cramped, and the garden is too small. The Flounder could have given us a bigger house. I want to live in a big stone castle. Go to the Flounder, and tell him to give us a castle.’
‘Alas, Wife,’ said the Man, ‘the cottage is good enough for us: what should we do with a castle?’
‘Never mind,’ said his Wife, ‘do thou but go to the Flounder, and he will manage it.’
‘Nay, Wife,’ said the Man, ‘the Flounder gave us the cottage. I don’t want to go back; as likely as not he ’ll be angry.’
‘Go, all the same,’ said the Woman. ‘He can do it easily enough, and willingly into the bargain. Just go!’
The Man’s heart was heavy, and he was very unwilling to go. He said to himself, ‘It’s not right.’ But at last he went.
