17
THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFK
THERE was once a fisherman who lived with his wife in a ditch, close by the sea-side. The fisherman used to go out all day long a-fishing; and one day, as he sat on the shore with his rod, looking at the shining water and watching his line, all on a sudden his float was dragged away deep under the sea ; and in drawing it up he pulled a great fish out of the water. The fish said to him, "Pray let me live : I am not a real fish ; I am an enchanted prince, put me in the water again, and let me go." " Oh !" said the man, " you need not make so many words about the matter ; I wish to have nothing to do with a fish that can talk ; so swim away as soon as you please." Then he put him back into the water, and the fish darted straight down to the bottom, and left a long streak of blood behind him.
When the fisherman went home to his wife in the ditch, he told her how he had caught a great fish, and how it had told him that it was an enchanted prince, and that on. hearing it speak he had let it go again. "Did you not ask it for anything?" said the wife. "No," said the man, "what should I ask for?" "Ah !" said the wife, "we live very wretchedly here in this nasty stinking ditch ; do go back, and tell the fish we want a little cottage."
The fisherman did not much like the business : however, he went to the sea, and when he came there the water looked all yellow and green. And he stood at the water's edge, and said,
- O man of the sea 1
Come listen to me,
For Alice my wife,
The plagne of my life, Hath sent me to beg a boon of tkee 1 "
