152 ANGLING LITERATURE IN 



The fisherman went ; but his heart was very heavy : 

 and when he came to the sea, it looked blue and gloomy, 

 though it was quite calm, and he went close to it and said, 



" O man of the sea ! 

 Come listen to me, 

 For Alice my wife, 

 The plague of my life, 

 Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee ! " 



" Well, what does she want now ? " said the fish. 

 " Ah ! " said the man very sorrowfully, " my wife 

 wants to live in a stone castle." " Go home then/' 

 said the fish, " she is standing at the door of it al- 

 ready." So away went the fisherman, and found his 

 wife standing before a great castle. " See," said she, " is 

 not this grand ?" With that they went into the castle 

 together, and found a great many servants there, and the 

 rooms all richly furnished and full of golden chairs and 

 tables. 



The next morning when Dame Alice awoke it was broad 

 daylight, and she jogged the fisherman with her elbow, 

 and said, " Get up, husband, and bestir yourself, for we 

 must be king of all the land." " Wife, wife," said the 

 man, " Why should we wish to be king? I will not be 

 king." " Then I will," said Alice. " But wife," answered 

 the fisherman, " how can you be king ? the fish cannot 

 make you a king." " Husband," said she, " say no more 

 about it, but go and try ; I will be king ! " So the man 

 went away quite sorrowful to think that his wife should 



