My wife, Ilsebil, will have her own way
Whatever I wish, whatever I say.”
The flounder came swimming up, and said: “Well, what do you want?”
“Alas!” said the man; “I had to call you, for my wife said I ought to have wished for something, as I caught you. She doesn’t want to live in our miserable hovel any longer; she wants a pretty cottage.”
“Go home again, then,” said the flounder; “she has her wish fully.”
The man went home and found his wife no longer in the old hut, but a pretty little cottage stood in its place, and his wife was sitting on a bench by the door.
She took him by the hand, and said: “Come and look in here—isn’t this much better?”
They went inside and found a pretty sitting-room, and a bedroom with a bed in it, a kitchen, and a larder furnished with everything of the best in tin and brass, and every possible requisite. Outside there was a little yard with chickens and ducks, and a little garden full of vegetables and fruit.
“Look!” said the woman, “is not this nice?”
“Yes,” said the man; “and so let it remain. We can live here very happily.”