Then he put him back into the water, and the fish darted straight down to the bottom, and left a long streak of blood behind him. When the fisherman went home to his wife in the ditch, he told her how he had caught a great fish, and how it had told him it was an enchanted prince, and that on hearing it speak he had let it go again. "Did you not ask it for anything?" said the wife. "No," said the man; "what should I ask it for?" "Ah!" said the wife, "we live very wretchedly here in this nasty miserable ditch, do go back and tell the fish we want a little cottage." The fisherman did not much like the business; however, he went to the sea, and when he came there the water looked all yellow and green. He sat at the water's edge and said-- "O man of the sea, Come listen to me, For Alice my wife, The plague of my life, Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!" Then the fish came swimming to him and said-- "Well, what does she want?" "Ah!" answered the fisherman, "my wife says that when I had caught you, I ought to have asked you for something before I let you go again. She does not like living any longer in the ditch, and wants a little cottage." "Go home, then," said the fish; "she is in the cottage already." So the man went home, and saw his wife standing at the door of a cottage. "Come in, come in," said she. "Is not this much better than the ditch?" There was a parlour, a bedchamber, and a kitchen; and behind the cottage there was a little garden with all sorts of flowers and fruits, and a courtyard full of ducks and chickens. "Ah," said the fisherman, "how happily we shall live!" "We will try to do so, at least," said his wife. Everything went right for a week or two, and then Dame Alice said-- "Husband, there is not room enough in this cottage, the courtyard and garden are a great deal too small. I should like to have a large stone castle to live in, so go to the fish again and tell him to give us a castle." "Wife," said the fisherman, "I don't like to go to him again, for perhaps he will be angry. We ought to be content with the cottage." "Nonsense!" said the wife, "he will do it very willingly. Go along and try." The fisherman went, but his heart was very heavy, and when he came to the sea it looked blue and gloomy, though it was quite calm. He went close to it, and said-- "O man of the sea, Come listen to me, For Alice my wife, The plague of my life, Hath sent me to beg a boon of thee!" "Well, what does she want now?" said the fish. "Ah!" said the man very sorrowfully, "my wife wants to live in a stone castle." "Go home, then," said the fish; "she is standing at the door of it already." Away went the fisherman, and found his wife standing before a great castle. "See," said she, "is not this grand?"