To begin with, I must tell you that there is in the sea a shoal of magic fishes. Some people say that there were originally in the shoal ten thousand fish, other people put the number down at only seven thousand five hundred, but that really doesn’t matter much; but what does matter to the story is this, that Lady Elizabeth bought one of these magic fishes in the market, and eat it that same night for her supper.
Not that she knew that the fish she had eaten was anything out of the way. In fact, nobody knew this, neither the cook, nor the fishmonger from whom it was purchased, nor anybody else; but eat it Lady Elizabeth did and had to take the consequences.
“Dear me!” she exclaimed, after supper, trying to keep her heavy eyes open, “I feel ever so sleepy.”
“Better go to bed,” said the Earl.
“I think I will,” replied Lady Elizabeth, with a little yawn, and giving her father a kiss, she went upstairs to her bedroom.
“Oh, dear,” she exclaimed, as she proceeded to undress herself, “what an unfortunate girl I am. Fancy an earl’s daughter having no maid to help her to bed when she is sleepy. Bah!” and here she stamped her little foot, “I wish everything were gold, that I could sell it.”
Having made this foolish remark, she was naughty enough to break the strings of her petticoat, for they had become knotted. Then she jumped into bed, and before her pretty head had touched the white pillow she was fast asleep, beyond even the land of dreams.
She slept soundly all the night through, not waking up till the sun was shining in at her window, in all his golden glory; indeed it was a glorious day, golden, bright, and beautiful!
Lady Elizabeth jumped from her bed with a song on her lips, and her eyes bright with health and beauty. But of a sudden the song ceased, as she cried out in wonder and alarm, and her eyes became fixed with extraordinary astonishment. She had poured the water from the jug into the basin, and as soon as she touched it with her pink fingers it had frozen hard. Frozen quite solid, not into ice, but into pure gold. Pure gold, worth hundreds of pounds!
It was the same in the bath, a bath both deep and wide. As soon as her little pink toe touched the water it froze into a large block of yellow gold, worth thousands upon thousands of pounds.