Go back and call him; tell him I want a pretty cottage; he
will surely give us that!"
"Alas," said the man, "what am I to go back there for?"
"Well," said the woman, "it was thou who caught him and let him go
again; for certain he will do that for thee. Be off now!"
The man was still not very willing to go, but he did not want to vex
his wife, and at last he went back to the sea.
He found the sea no longer bright and shining, but dull and green. He
stood by it and said:
"Flounder, flounder in the sea,
Prythee, hearken unto me:
My wife, Ilsebil, will have her own way
Whatever I wish, whatever I say."
The flounder came swimming up, and said: "Well, what do you want?"
"Alas!" said the man; "I had to call you, for my wife said I ought to
have wished for something, as I caught you. She 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.
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