Section09.pdf - MIT Media Laboratory

Up through the water came the Flounder and said:
‘Well then, what spell does your wife wish me to east?’
‘Ah,’ said the Fisherman. ‘I hardly like to ask you
this. But she says that as I did catch you and then let
you go, I ought to have wished for something. She does
not like living in a hut, she wants a fine cottage.’
‘Go home,’ said the Flounder. ‘She is living in a fine
cottage already.’
Home went the Fisherman in a hurry, and sure
enough, his wife met him as the door of a beautiful
cottage and led him in to see the pretty little parlour and
bedroom, the kitchen and the pantry, with its good plain
furniture and its dishes of brass and tin. Behind the
cottage was a yard with hens and ducks in it, and there
was also a little garden with flowers and fruit.
‘Look,’ said his wife, ‘isn’t this better than a hut!’
‘Is is indeed,’ answered the Fisherman, ‘and now we
have nothing else to wish for.’
‘We wlil see about that,’ said his wife.
Sure enough, a few weeks later she exelalined impauently:
‘Listen, husband. This cottage is far too small
and mean: the Flounder should have given us something
larger. Go back and tell him to give us a castle!’
‘An wife,’ said the Fisherman, ‘this cottage is all
we need. Why ever should we want to live in a castle?’
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‘Ridiculous!’ cried his wife. ‘Off you go this instant
and tell the fish to give us a castle quickly.’
The Fisherman’s heart grew heavy. ‘It is not right
to ask for more,’ he said. ‘The Flounder has been very
kind to us. I shall not go.’
But he went, for he dared not disobey his wife. And
when he got to the pool, the sea was quite purple and
dark-blue, and grey and thick though there was still no
sound of a storm. So he stood on the shore and cried:
‘Magic Flounder of the srs
Come, I pray you, herr to me!
For my wife, my Isabel
Bids me ask another spell.’
Up through the water came the Flounder and said:
‘Well, what does she want this time?’
‘Alas,’ said the Fisherman sadly, ‘she is not contented
with the cottage, she wantsto livein a greatstone castle.’
‘Go home,’ said the Flounder, ‘she is living in a great
stone castle already.’
Home went the Fisherman in a hurry, and sure
enough in plate of the cottage stood a great stone castle
with a deer park round about it, and acres of gardens on
either side. Hiswife met him at she door and led him