The fish came swimming to the shore.
“Well, old man!” it said, “what do you want?”
“My wife is not yet satisfied,” said the man; “she wants now to be a Czarina.”
“Do not let that trouble you,” said the fish, “but go to your house. What you ask shall be done.”
The man went back. In place of the fine house he found a palace with a roof of gold. Soldiers were on guard around it. In front of the palace was a garden, and at the back a fine park, in which some troops were parading. On a balcony stood the Czarina surrounded by officers and nobles. The troops presented arms, the drums beat, the trumpets blew, and the people shouted.
In a short time the woman got tired of being Czarina, and she commanded that her husband should be found and brought to her presence. The palace was all in confusion, for who knew what had become of the old man? Officers and noblemen hurried here and there to search for him. At length he was found in a hut behind the palace.
“Listen, you old idiot!” said his wife. “Go to the golden fish, and tell it that I am tired of being Czarina. I want to rule over all the ocean, to have dominion over every sea and all the fish.”
The old man hesitated to go to the fish with such a request.
“Be off!” said his wife, “or your head shall be cut off.”
The man went to the seashore and said—