

CONNECTION WITH ASTROLOGY, ETC. 151 



" O man of the sea ! 

 Coine listen to me, 

 For Alice my wife, 

 The plague of my life, 

 Has sent me to beg a boon of thee ! " 



Then the fish came swimming to him, and said, " Well, 

 what does she want ?" " Ah !" answered the fisherman, 

 "my wife says that when I had caught you, I ought to 

 have asked you for something before I let you go again ; 

 she does not like living any longer in the ditch, and wants 

 a little cottage. " Go home, then," said the fish, " she is 

 in the cottage already." So the man went home, and 

 saw his wife standing at the door of a cottage. " Come 

 in, come in," said she ; " is not this much better than the 

 ditch? " And there was a parlour, and a bed-chamber, 

 and a kitchen ; and behind the cottage there was a little 

 garden with all sorts of flowers and fruits, and a court- 

 yard full of ducks and chickens. " Ah !" said the fisher- 

 man, " how happily we shall live !" " We will try to do 

 so at least," said his wife. 



Everything went right for a week or two, and then 

 Dame Alice said, " Husband, there is not room enough in 

 this cottage, the court-yard and garden are a great deal 

 too small ; I should like to have a large stone castle to 

 jive in; so go to the fish again, and tell him to give us a 

 castle." " Wife," said the fisherman, " I don't like to go 

 to him again, for perhaps he will be angry ; we ought to 

 be content with the cottage." " Nonsense !" said the 

 wife j "lie will do it very willingly ; go along, and try." 



