A poor fisherman lived with his wife in a little hut beside the sea. One day he caught a large flounder. "Let me go," said the fish. "I am not a real fish. I am an enchanted prince." The fisherman was frightened, and he put the fish back into the water.
When he told his wife, she was angry. "Did you ask for nothing at all? Go back and ask for a little house." The fisherman did not want to go, but he went. He stood at the edge of the water and called the fish. The sea was green and yellow. The fish came, and the fisherman asked, and when he walked home his wife was standing in a pretty little house.
For two weeks she was happy. Then she said, "This house is too small. Ask for a castle." The fisherman went down to the water again. The sea was dark blue and grey. The fish listened, and gave them the castle.
But his wife was not finished. "I want to be king," she said. Then, "I want to be emperor." Each time the fisherman walked down to the water. Each time the sea was darker and rougher than before. Each time the fish said quietly, "Go home. She has it already."
At last she said, "I want to make the sun and the moon come up." The fisherman went down in the middle of a storm. The waves were as high as houses and the wind tore at the trees. He shouted his wife's wish into the noise.
"Go home," said the fish. "She is sitting in the old hut again." And there they sit to this day.
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