The Juniper Tree and Other Tales by The Brothers Grimm Read Free Book Online

barrel brought. The old woman and her daughter were put into it, and then the lid was hammered into place, and the barrel was rolled downhill until it landed in the river.

THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE
    O NCE UPON A TIME there was a fisherman who lived with his wife in a pisspot close to the sea, and the fisherman went out to fish every day. He fished and he fished.
    So there he was one day, sitting on the shore and looking into the clear water, and he sat and sat there.
    Then his line went right to the bottom of the sea, deep, deep down, and when he pulled it in there was a large flounder on the end of it. “Fisherman,” said the flounder, “listen to me. Please spare my life. I am not really a flounder, but an enchanted prince under a spell. What good will it do you to kill me? You wouldn’t really like the taste of me, so throw me back into the water and let me swim away!”
    “Well now,” said the fisherman, “there’s no need for so many words. I’m certainly going to throw a flounder who can talk back into the water.” So saying, he put the flounder back in the clear water, and the fish swam away, leaving a long trail of blood behind. Then the fisherman stood up and went home to his wife in the pisspot.
    “Haven’t you caught anything today, husband?” asked his wife.
    “No,” said the fisherman. “I did catch a flounder, but he said he was an enchanted prince under a spell, so I let him swim away again.”
    “Didn’t you ask him for a wish?” asked his wife.
    “No,” said the fisherman. “What would I wish for?”
    “Why,” said his wife, “I don’t like living in this pisspot, it stinks and it’s disgusting. You might have wished for a little house for us. Go back to the shore and call to the flounder! Tell him we’d like to have a little house. I’m sure he’ll give us that.”
    “But why should I go back to the shore?” asked the fisherman.
    “Why?” said his wife. “You caught him and then you let him swim away, so I’m sure he’ll do that for you. Off you go!”
    The husband didn’t quite like the idea, but he didn’t want to cross his wife’s will either, so he went down to the sea.
    When he got there, the sea was all green and yellow, and the water wasn’t as clear as before. So he stood there and called:
    “Mannie, mannie, timpty tee,
    Flounder swimming in the sea,
    My wife Mistress Ilsebill
    Wants a wish against my will.”
    Then the flounder came swimming up and said, “What does she want, then?”
    “Oh,” said the man. “I caught you, and now my wife says I ought to have wished for something. She doesn’t like living in a pisspot, she wants to have a little house.”
    “Go home,” said the flounder. “She has her little house already.”
    So the fisherman went home, and his wife wasn’t sitting in the pisspot any more. There was a little house where it had stood, and his wife was sitting on a bench outside the door. She took his hand, saying, “Come in, look, this is so much better!” Then they went into the little house, and saw a small entrance hall, a lovely little living room and a bedroom with a bed for each of them in it, a kitchen and a pantry, all equipped with the very best utensils made of pewter and copper and well displayed, just right for the house. There was a little yard behind it with ducks and geese, and a little garden where green herbs and vegetables and fruit grew. “Look,” said the fisherman’s wife, “isn’t this nice?”
    “Yes,” said the fisherman. “We’ll live happily in this house and be content with it.”
    “Let’s think that over,” said his wife, and then they had something to eat and went to bed.
    Well, so it went on for a week or two, and then the fisherman’s wife said, “Listen, husband, this little houseis too cramped, and the yard and garden are so small. The flounder might have given us a larger house. I’d like to live in a big stone castle. Go back to the flounder and tell him to give us a