"Let down, let down thy petticoat
That lets thy feet be seen."
She turned around in surprise, and then she saw the little creature, the golden crab.
"What! You can speak, can you, you ridiculous crab?" she said, for she was not quite pleased at the crab's remark. Then she took him up and placed him on a dish.
When her husband came home and they sat down to dinner, they presently heard the crab's little voice saying: "Give me some, too." They were all very much surprised, but they gave him something to eat. When the old man came to take away the plate which had contained the crab's dinner, he found it full of gold, and as the same thing happened every day he soon became very fond of the crab.
One day the crab said to the fisherman's wife: "Go to the King and tell him I wish to marry his younger daughter."
The old woman went accordingly and laid the matter before the King, who laughed a little at the notion of his daughter marrying a crab, but did not decline the proposal altogether, because he was a prudent monarch and knew that the crab was likely to be a prince in disguise. He said, therefore, to the fisherman's wife: "Go, old woman, and tell the crab I will give him my daughter if by to-morrow morning he can build a wall in front of my castle much higher than my tower, upon which all the flowers of the world must grow and bloom."
The fisherman's wife went home and gave this message.
Then the crab gave her a golden rod and said: "Go and strike with this rod three times upon the ground on the place which the King showed you, and to-morrow morning the wall will be there."
The old woman did so and went away again.
The next morning, when the King awoke, what do you think he saw? The wall stood there before his eyes, exactly as he had bespoken it!