“We will see about that,” said the woman, and with that they ate something and went to bed.
Everything went well for a week or more, and then said the wife: “Listen, husband; this cottage is too cramped, and the garden is too small. The flounder might have given us a bigger house. I want to live in a big stone castle. Go to the flounder, and tell him to give us a castle.”
“Alas, wife!” said the man; “the cottage is good enough for us; what should we do with a castle?”
“Never mind,” said his wife; “do thou but go to the flounder, and he will manage it.”
“Nay, wife,” said the man; “the flounder gave us the cottage. I don’t want to go back; as likely as not he’ll be angry.”
“Go, all the same,” said the woman. “He can do it easily enough, and willingly into the bargain. Just go!”
The man’s heart was heavy, and he was very unwilling to go. He said to himself: “It’s not right.” But at last he went.
He found the sea was no longer green; it was still calm, but dark violet and gray. He stood by it and said:
“Flounder, flounder in the sea,
Prythee, hearken unto me: