I should like to live in a great stone
castle; go to the Flounder, and tell him to give us a castle." "Ah,
wife," said the man, "the cottage is quite good enough; why should
we live in a castle?" "What!" said the woman; "just go there, the
Flounder can always do that." "No, wife," said the man, "the Flounder
has just given us the cottage; I do not like to go back so soon.
It might make him angry." "Go," said the woman, "he can do it quite
easily, and will be glad to do it; just you go to him."
The man's heart grew heavy, and he would not go. He said to himself,
"It is not right," and yet he went. And when he came to the sea the
water was quite purple and dark-blue, and gray and thick, and no
longer green and yellow; but it was still quiet. And he stood there
and said--
"Flounder, Flounder, in the sea,
Come, I pray thee, here to me;
For my wife, good Ilsabil,
Wills not as I'd have her will."
"Well, what does she want, then?" said the Flounder. "Alas," said the
man, half scared, "she wants to live in a great stone castle." "Go to
it, then, she is standing before the door," said the Flounder.
Then the man went away, intending to go home, but when he got there,
he found a great stone palace, and his wife was just standing on the
steps going in, and she took him by the hand and said, "Come in." So
he went in with her, and in the castle was a great hall paved with
marble, and many servants, who flung wide the doors; and the walls
were all bright with beautiful hangings, and in the rooms were
chairs and tables of pure gold, and crystal chandeliers hung from the
ceiling, and all the rooms and bedrooms had carpets, and food and wine
of the very best were standing on all the tables so that they nearly
broke down beneath it.
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