THE LlTTLE PEAR GIRL

   Once upon a time, a peasant worked hard to make a living from his land.
Every year his pear tree produced four basketfuls of fruit which had to be
given to the king, a greedy ruler who grew rich at the expense of the poor.
   One year, part of the pear harvest went bad and the peasant was able to
pick only three and a half baskets of fruit. The poor man was beside himself
with fear, for the king refused to take less than four basketfuls, and the
peasant would be cruelly punished.
   All he could do was put his youngest daughter into one of the baskets and
cover her with a layer of pears, so that the basket looked full. The king's
servants took away the four baskets without ever noticing the trick, and the
little girl found herself all alone in the pantry, under the pears.
   One day, the cook went into the pantry and discovered her. Nobody could
understand where on earth she had come from, and not knowing what to do with
her, it was decided she should become a maid in the castle. Folk called her
Violetta, for her eyes reminded them of the colour of violets.
   Violetta was a pretty girl, sweet and generous. One day, as she was
watering the flowers in the royal gardens, she met the king's son, a youth of
her own age, and the two became friends. The other maids, jealous of
Violetta's beauty and of the affection many people in the castle felt for the
girl, did everything they could to get her into trouble, by spreading nasty
rumours about her. One day, the king sent for her and said severely:
   "I'm told you boast of being able to steal the witches' treasure trove. Is
that true?" Violetta said 'no,' but the king refused to believe her and drove
her out of his kingdom.
   "You may return only when you have laid hands on the treasure," he said.
All Violetta's fondest friends, including the prince, were sorry to hear of
the king's decision, but could do nothing to stop her going. The girl wandered
through the forest and, when she came to a pear tree, she climbed into its
branches and fell asleep. She was wakened at dawn by an old woman calling her:
   "What are you doing up there, all by yourself?" Violetta told the old woman
her tale. She offered to help the little girl, gave her some round loaves, a
broom, a little oil and some good advice, and the girl again set off. She
reached a clearing with a large wood stove and saw three women tearing their
hair, using it to sweep the ashes from the stove. Violetta offered them the
broom and the women pointed out the way to the witches' palace.
   Suddenly, two hungry mastiffs blocked her path. Violetta threw them the
loaves, the dogs ate them and let her pass. Then she came to the bank of a
river in flood, but remembering the old woman's advice, she sang:
   Clear sparkling river
   Let me cross over,
and the minute her song wafted into the air, the water stopped flowing.
Violetta thus crossed the river and at last reached the witches' palace. The
door was unlocked, but Violetta could not push it open for the hinges were
rusted. So she rubbed on a little oil and the door swung open. The little girl
walked through the empty halls till she came to a splendid room in wich lay a
magnificent coffer full of jewels. Holding the coffer under her arm, Violetta
made for the door, but the coffer, being enchanted, cried out:
   "Door! Don't let her out!" However, the door did open, for Violetta had
oiled the hinges. Down at the river, the coffer cried out. This time it said:
   "Water! Drown her!" But the river did not stop the little girl from
crossing; the two mastiffs did not attack ant the three strange women did not
burn her in their stove. For each, in its own way, repaid the girl's courtesy.
Back at the king's palace again, the prince ran happily to meet Violetta,
telling her:
   "When my father asks you what you want as a reward, ask him for the basket
of pears in the pantry!" And this Violetta did. Pleased at paying such a
modest price, the king instantly ordered the humble basket to be brought. But
nobody ever imagined for a minute that underneath the pears lay the prince.
The young man came out of his hiding place, swore he was in love with Violetta
and that he wanted to marry her.
   In this way, the king was forced to give his consent. Violetta brought her
family to court and they all began a new and happy life.

.

THE HARE AND THE PORCUPINE

   Once upon a time . . . an old porcupine lived in a large wood with his twin
sons. Apples were their favourite dish, but the youngsters sometimes raided a
neighbouring vegetable plot for the turnips Dad loved to munch. One day, one
of the young porcupines set off as usual to fetch the turnips. Like all
porcupines, he was a slow walker, and he had just reached a large cabbage,
when from behind the leaves, out popped a hare.
   "So you have arrived at last!" said the hare. "I've been watching you for
half an hour. Do you always dawdle? I hope you're quicker at eating, or it
will take you a year to finish the turnips!" Instead of going into a huff at
being teased, the porcupine decided to get his own back by being very crafty.
   Slow on his feet but a quick thinker, he rapidly hit on a plan. So the hare
sneered at the slow porcupine, did he? Well, the hare's own turn of speed would
be his downfall!
   "I can run faster than you if I try," said the porcuplne "Ha! Ha!" the hare
shrieked with laughter, raising a large paw. "You can't compete with this! My
grandad was the speediest hare of his day. He even won a gold penny. He used
to be my coach. And you tell me you can run faster than me? Well, I bet my
grandad's gold penny that I can win without even trying!"
   The porcupine paid little heed to the hare's boastful words and quietly
acccepted the challenge. "I'll meet you tomorrow down at the ploughed field.
We'll race in parallel furrows. And see wins!"
   The hare went away laughing.
   "Better stay here all night! You'll never get home and back in time for the
race!" he told the porcupine. The porcupine, however, had a bright idea. When
he arrived home, he told his twin brother what had happened. Just before dawn
next day, he gave his instructions, and off they set for the field. Hare
appeared, rudely remarking: "I'll take off my jacket so I can run faster!"
   Ready! Steady! Go! And in a flash, the hare streaked to the other end of
the field. There, waiting for him was a porcupine, which tesingly said:
   "Rather late, aren't you? I've been here for ages!" Gasping and so
breathless his throat was dry, the hare whispered: "Let's try again!"
   "All right," agreed the porcupine, "we'll run the race again." Never in all
his life had the hare run so fast. Not even with the hounds snapping at his
heels. But every time he reached the other end of the ploughed field, what did
he flnd but the porcupine, who laughingly  exclaimed: "What? Late again? I
keep  on getting here first!" Racing up and down the field the hare sped,
trying to beat the porcupine. His legs grew terribly tired and he began to
sag. And every time he came to the end of the field there stood a porcupine
calling himself the winner.
   "Perhaps I ought to mention, friend hare, that my grandad was the fastest
porcupine of his day. He didn't win a gold penny, but he won apples, and after
the race, he ate them. But I don't want apples. I'd rather have the nice gold
penny you promised me!" said one of the porcupine twins.
   The hare slid to the ground, dead tired. His head was spinning and his legs
felt like rubber.
   "This race is the end of me! I shall die here in this field, where I really
believed I was a sprinter! The shame of it! What a disgrace!" The hare
staggered home, hot and sticky, to fetch the gold penny that he had never for
a moment ever imagined he would lose. His eyes brimming with tears, he handed
it over to the porcupines.
   "Thank goodness my grandad isn't alive to see this!" he said. "Whatever
would he say? After all his coaching, here I am, beaten by a porcupine!"
   That evening, a party was held at the porcupines' house. The twins danced
triumphantly in turn, waving aloft the gold penny. Father Porcupine brought
out his old accordion for the special occasion, and the fun went on all night.
 As luck would have it, the hare never did find out the secret of how the race
had been rigged. Which was just as well! . . .
.

THE POPLAR AND THE STREAM

   Once upon a time . . . a woodcutter called Ivan lived ln a huge forest in
the north of Russia. A sturdy young man, with his bare hands he built himself
a stout log cabin and when it was finished, he thought he would look for a
wife. His dream was of a beautiful maiden, tall, slender and fair, with blue
eyes and a creamy skin.
   On Sundays he roamed to distant villages looking for the girl of his
dreams. But the only girls he ever saw were dull and not pretty enough.
   As it so happened, the path he took to work passed close to a pretty little
house with green shutters. Often, the corner of a curtain would be raised and
a sweet-faced girl would watch the woodcutter as he went by. For he had
unwittingly lit the flames of love in a maiden's heart. This young girl c
alled Natasha; she was very shy, but her love for the woodcutter was so great
that, one day, she plucked up enough courage to stop him on the path.
   "I picked this basket of strawberries myself," she said. "Please eat them
and think of me!"
   "Well, she's not exactly ugly," said Ivan to himself as he stared woodenly
at Natasha, who was blushing to the roots of her hair.
   "I don't like strawberries," he replied bluntly. "But thanks all the same!"
   Tears sprang to Natasha's eyes as she watched him stride away. A few days
later, the girl again stopped Ivan and held out a woolen jacket saying: "The
air will be chilly tonight when you go home. This will keep you warm. I made it
myself."
   But Ivan coldly replied: "What makes you think that a man like me is afraid
of the cold?"
   And this time, at Ivan's refusal, two tears rolled down Natasha's rosy
cheeks and she fled sobbing into the house.
   However, Natasha again watched for the woodcutter. This time, she held out
a bottle and said: "You can t refuse a liqueur that I distilled from all the
fruits of the forest! It will ..." But Ivan broke in saying: "I don't like
liqueurs," and I marched straight on. However, he realized he had been very
rude, so he turned round, but Natasha had gone. As he walked, he said to
himself: " She has gentle eyes . . . and she must be very kind-hearted!
Perhaps I should take at least one of her gifts, but . . ." The picture of his
dream girl slipped into his mind. "I'm so unhappy!" he sighed.
   At that very moment, on a golden cloud appeared a beautiful lady. "Will you
sing a song for me? I'm Rosalka, one of the woodland fairies!" Ivan stood
thunderstruck.
   "I'd sing for you for the rest of my life!" he exclaimed "If only I could
. . ." and he stretched out his hand to touch the fairy, but she floated out
of reach amongst the branches.
   "Sing then! Sing! Only the sound of your voice will ever send me to sleep!"
So Ivan happily sang all the old lullabies and love songs, while the drowsy
fairy urged him on: "Sing! Sing!"
   Cold and weary, his voice getting hoarser the woodcutter sang till evening,
as he tried to help the fairy to fall asleep. But when night fell, Rosalka was
still demanding: "If you love me, sing on! Sing!"
   As the woodcutter sang on, in a feeble voice, he kept thinking: "I wish I
had a jacket to keep me warm!"
   Suddenly he remembered Natasha.
   "What a fool I am!" he told himself. "I should have chosen her as my bride,
not this woman who asks and gives nothing in return!"
   Ivan felt that only the gentle-faced Natasha could fill his empty heart. He
fled into the darkness, but he heard a cruel voice call: ". . . you'll never
see her again! All her tears for her great love have turned her into a stream!
You'll never see her again!"
   It was dawn when Ivan knocked at Natasha's door. No one answered. And the
woodcutter saw, with fear, that close by flowed a tiny sparkling stream he had
never noticed before. Weeping sorrowfully, he plunged his face into the water.
   "Oh, Natasha, how could I have been so blind! And I love you now!" Lifting
his gaze to the sky, he silently said a prayer:"Let me stay beside her
forever! "                                        ||
   Ivan was magically turned into a young poplar tree and the stream bathed its
roots. Natasha had, at last, her beloved Ivan by her side for ever.
.

THE GOLDEN GOOSE

   Once upon a time . . . there was a woodcutter called Thaddeus, a dreamy,
foolish-looking lad though good-hearted. One day, his father sent him to a
distant wood to chop down trees. Thaddeus thought that these trees were a kind
he had never seen before and that it was hard work trying to hack through
their hard trunks. Sweating after all his efforts, he had barely sat down
against a sawn-off trunk to have a meal, when a strange old man with a white
beard popped out from behind a bush and asked him for a bite to eat. Kindly
Thaddeus gave him some bread and cheese and together they cheerily drank a
flask of wine.
   "Of all the woodcutters that have tried to fell these trees, you're the
first one who has been nice to me," said the old man, stuttering, perhaps
after all the wine. "You deserve a reward. If you cut down that tree in the
centre of the wood, you'll find that all the others will fall down by
themselves. Have a look in its roots where there's a gift for you! You see,
I'm the Wizard of the Woods!"
   Not particularly surprised, Thaddeus did as he was told, and in a flash,
his work was done. From the roots of the tree the Wizard had pointed towards,
the woodcutter took a golden goose. Slipping the bird under hls arm, Thaddeus
set off homewards. Now, it may have been too much wine, or maybe the fact he
was new to these parts, but the fact remains that Thaddeus lost his way. At
dead of night, he reached a strange village. A tavern was still open, so the
woodcutter went in.
   "Something to eat for myself and for the Golden Goose that the Wizard of
the Woods gave me," he ordered the innkeeper's daughter. "That's a bite for me
and a bite for you," he said, sharing his food with the goose across the
table. The innkeeper's other two daughters came to stare at the strange sight,
then all three dared ask: "Why are you so kind to a goose?"
   "This is a magic goose," replied Thaddeus, "and worth a fortune. I shall
stay the night here and I need a secure room, for I don't want to be robbed."
   However, during the night, one of the sisters was persuaded to steal at
least one goose feather.
   "If it's a magic bird, then one of its feathers will be precious too!" But
the second her hand touched the goose's tail, it stuck fast, and nothing would
unstick it. In a low voice, she called her sisters, but when they tried to
pull her free, they too stuck fast. A little later, Thaddeus woke, not at all
surprised to see the three sisters, ashamed at being discovered, stuck to the
golden goose.
   "How can we get free?" they wailed. But the woodcutter coolly replied:
   "I have to leave with my goose. Too bad for you if you're stuck to her.
You'll just have to come too!" And when the innkeeper saw the strange little
procession trip past, he shouted "What's up?" and grabbed the last sister by
the arm. It was the worst thing he could have done! For he too found himself
attached to the tail of the little group. The same fate awaited a nosy village
woman, the plump curate and the baker who had placed a hand on the curate's
shoulder as he rushed past. Last of all came a guard who had tried to stop the
procession. People laughed as Thaddeus and his row of followers went by, and
crowds soon flocked the roads.
   Close to the village where Thaddeus had spent the night stood the Royal
Palace. Though rich and powerful, the King had a great sorrow: his only
daughter suffered from a strange illness that no doctor had been able to cure.
She was always sad and unhappy. The King had once proclaimed that the man who
succeeded in making his daughter laugh would be granted her hand in marriage.
But so far, nobody had so much as brought a smile to the Princess's lips.
   As it so happened, the Princess chose that day to drive through the village
square, just as the woodcutter with the goose under his arm, solemnly marched
by with his line of unwilling followers. When she heard the people chuckle,
the Princess raised the carriage curtains. The minute she set eyes on the
amazing sight, she burst into peals of laughter.
   Everyone was amazed to hear the Princess laugh for the first time. She
stepped down from the carriage for a closer look at the golden goose and
that's how she got stuck to the baker! Laughing and chattering, the procession
headed towards the palace, with the crowds at their heels. When the King saw
his daughter in fits of laughter, he could hardly believe it.
   "How amazing! How amazing!" he said.
   But in spite of all the mirth, it was a serious situation. That is, until a
large man with a tall peaked hat and a white beard stepped forward and snapped
his fingers three times. Suddenly, Thaddeus and the others all became unstuck.
The woodcutter was about to thank the Wizard of the Woods, for it could be
none other, but he had vanished into thin air. And that's how the simple
woodcutter, Thaddeus, found himself married to the King's daughter.
.

A SHREWD FARMER'S STORY

   Once upon a time there lived a farmer who worked far from his home in the
fields of a rich baron.
   In the past, gangs of bandits hid in the mountains rising behind the plain
but the emperor had sent his soldiers to find and kill the thieves and now the
area was safe and quiet. Every once in a while, however, old weapons from past
battles could be found in the fields.
   While he was chopping a stump one day, the farmer found a bag full of gold.
The farmer had only ever seen silver coins in his life, and he was so
astonished to find all that gold, that when he started walking home it was
already dark. On his way home, the farmer thought about the problems that this
sudden wealth could cause him.
   First of all, everything found on the baron's territory belonged to the
baron. By law, the farmer had to hand the gold over to the baron. The farmer
decided that it was much more fair for him to keep the treasure because he was
very poor, rather than giving it to the baron who already had a lot of money.
He realized the risk he would run if anyone found out about his luck. He would
never tell anyone, of course, but his wife had a reputation for talking too
much and she would never keep a secret. Sooner or later he would end up in
jail.
   He thought the problem over and over until he found a solution. Before
getting home he left the bag full of gold in a bush next to some pine trees
and the day after, instead of going to work, he went by the village to buy a
few nice trout, some doughnuts and a rabbit. In the afternoon he went home and
said to his wife:
   "Get your wicker basket and come with me. Yesterday it rained  and the wood
is full of mushrooms. We must get to them before someone else does!" The wife,
who loved mushrooms, picked up her basket and followed her husband. When they
got to the woods the farmer ran to his wife shouting:
   "Look! Look! We have found a doughnut tree!" and he showed her the branches
he previously loaded with doughnuts.
   The wife was astonished but she was even more puzzled when, instead of
mushrooms, she found trout in the grass. The farmer laughed happily.
   "Today is our lucky day! My grandfather said that everyone has one lucky
day. We might even find a treasure!" In addition to being a gossip, the
farmer's wife was also a sucker. So she believed her husband and repeated,
while looking around: "This is our lucky day, this is our lucky day."
   The basket of the woman was full of fish by now. When she and her husband
reached the banks the farmer ran ahead of her, looked into the thicket and
said:
   "Yesterday I laid out my nets and I want to check whether I've caught any
fish or shrimps." A few minutes later the wife heard the husband shout:
   "Run and see what I've caught! What extraordinary luck! I've fished a
rabbit!" They were walking back home and the wife kept talking excitedly about
the great dinner with the doughnuts, the fish and the rabbit. The husband
said: "Let's go by the wood again. We could find other doughnuts!"
   They went to the spot where the farmer had hidden his gold coins. The farmer
pretended to find something.
   "Look over here! There's a strange bag and... it's full of gold! This is an
enchanted forest. We found the doughnuts on the trees, then we found the trout
in the grass and now... gold." The poor woman was so excited that tears filled
her eyes. She could not utter another word and gulped as she touched the shiny
coins.
   At home, after dinner, neither of the two could fall asleep. The farmer and
his wife kept getting up to look over the treasure they had hidden in an old
boot. The day after the farmer went back to work, but first said to his wife:
   "Don't tell anybody about what happened yesterday." And he repeated the
same recommendation every day after that. Pretty soon, however, the entire
village had heard about the treasure. The farmer and his wife were called by
the baron and when they went in to see him the farmer tried to stand behind
his wife. His wife, at the request of the baron, spoke first of the doughnuts,
then of the trout on the grass and lastly of the rabbit in the river.
Meanwhile, behind her, the husband kept tapping his forehead with his finger
and gesticulating to the baron. The baron began looking at the woman with pity.
   "And then I bet you found a treasure, too."
   "That's right, Sir!" the woman said. The baron turned to the farmer and,
tapping his finger on his forehead sympathetically said:
   "I see what you mean. Unfortunately, I have the same problem with my
wife . . ."
   The farmers were sent home and no one believed their story. And so the
shrewd farmer didn't go to jail and spent his money wisely.
.

THE THREE WISHES

   Once upon a time . . . a woodcutter lived happily with his wife in a pretty
little log cabin in the middle of a thick forest. Each morning he set off
singing to work, and when he came home in the evening, a plate of hot steaming
soup was always waiting for him.
   One day, however, he had a strange surprise. He came upon a big fir tree
with strange open holes on the trunk. It looked somehow different from the
other trees, and just as he was about to chop it down, the alarmed face of an
elf popped out of a hole.
   "What's all this banging?" asked the elf. "You're not thinking of cutting
down this tree, are you? It's my home. I live here!" The woodcutter dropped
his axe in astonlshment.
   "Well, I . . ." he stammered.
   "With all the other trees there are in this forest, you have to pick this
one. Lucky I was in, or I would have found myself homeless."
   Taken aback at these words, the woodcutter qulckly recovered, for after all
the elf was quite tiny, while he himself was a big hefty chap, and he boldly
replied: "I'll cut down any tree I like, so . . ."
   "All right! All right!" broke in the elf. "Shall we put it this way: if you
don't cut down this tree, I grant you three wishes. Agreed?" The woodcutter
scratched his head.
   "Three wishes, you say? Yes, I agree." And he began to hack at another
tree. As he worked and sweated at his task, the woodcutter kept thinking about
the magic wishes.
   "I'll see what my wife thinks..."
   The woodcutter's wife was busily cleaning a pot outside the house when her
husband arrived. Grabbing her round the waist, he twirled her in delight.
   "Hooray! Hooray! Our luck is in!"
   The woman could not understand why her husband was so pleased with himself
and she shrugged herself free. Later, however, over a glass of fine wine at
the table, the woodcutter told his wife of his meeting with the elf, and she
too began to picture the wonderful things that the elf's three wishes might
give them. The woodcutter's wife took a first sip of wine from her husband's
glass.
   "Nice," she said, smacking her lips. "I wish I had a string of sausages to
go with it, though..."
   Instantly she bit her tongue, but too late. Out of the air appeared the
sausages while the woodcutter stuttered with rage.
   ". . . what have you done! Sausages . . . What a stupid waste of a wish!
You foollsh woman. I wish they would stick up your nose!" No sooner sald than
done. For the sausages leapt up and stuck fast to the end of the woman's nose.
This time, the woodcutter's wife flew into a rage.
   "You idiot, what have you done? With all the things we could have wished
for . . ." The mortified woodcutter, who had just repeated his wife's own
mistake, exclaimed:
   "I'd chop . . ." Luckily he stopped himself in time, realizing with horror
that he'd been on the point of having his tongue chopped off. As his wife
complained and blamed him, the poor man burst out laughing.
   "If only you knew how funny you look with those sausages on the end of your
nose!" Now that really upset the woodcutter's wife. She hadn't thought of her
looks. She tried to tug away the sausages but they would not budge. She pulled
again and again, but in vain. The sausages were firmly attached to her nose.
Terrified, she exclaimed: "They'll be there for the rest of my life!"
   Feeling sorry for his wife and wondering how he could ever put up with a
woman with such an awkward nose, the woodcutter said: "I'll try." Grasping the
string of sausages, he tugged with all his might. But he simply pulled his
wife over on top of him. The pair sat on the floor, gazing sadly at each other.
   "What shall we do now?" they said, each thinking the same thought.
   "There's only one thing we can do . . ." ventured the woodcutter's wife
timidly.
   "Yes, I'm afraid so . . ." her husband sighed, remembering their dreams of
riches, and he bravely wished the third and last wish "I wish the sausages
would leave my wife's nose."
   And they did. Instantly, husband and wife hugged each other tearfully,
saying "Maybe we'll be poor, but we'll be happy again!"
   That evening, the only reminder of the woodcutter's meeting with the elf
was the string of sausages. So the couple fried them, gloomily thinking of
what that meal had cost them.
.

THE LITTLE GOLD FISH

   Once upon a time...a poor fisherman lived in a humble cottage near the sea.
One day, he set off as usual with his load of nets to go fishing.
   "Don't you dare come home empty-handed!" shouted his nagging wife from the
door. Down on the shore, he had just thrown the nets into the sea, when
something glittering in the meshes caught his eye.
   "What a strange fish!" he said to himself, picking up a golden yellow fish.
And his amazement grew when he heard the fish say these words:
   "Kind fisherman, let me go free! I'm the son of the Sea King, and if you
let me go, I'll grant any wish you care to make!" Alarmed at this miracle,
without a second thought, the fisherman tossed the fish back into the water.
But when he went home and told his wife what had happened she scolded him
soundly:
   "What! When the fish said your wishes could come true, you should have
asked it for something! Go back to the beach and if you see it, ask for a new
washtub! Just look at the state of ours!"
   The poorman went back to the shore. As soon as he called the fish, it
popped up from the water.
   "Where you calling me?  Here I am!" it said. The fisherman explained what
his wife wanted, and the fish quickly replied:
   "You were very good to me! Go home, and you'll see that your wish has come
true!" Certain that his wife would be pleased, the fisherman hurried home. But
the minute he opened the door, his wife screeched:
   "So it really is a magic fish that you allowed to go free! Just look at
that old washtub! It's brand new! But if that little fish has such powers, you
can't possibly be content with such a miserable little wish! Go straight back
and get it to give you a new house!"
   The fisherman hurried back to the shore.
   "I wonder if I'll see it again! I hope it hasn't gone away! Little fish!
Little fish!" he began to call from the water's edge.
   "Here I am! What do you want this time?" he heard it ask.
   "Well, my wife would like . . ."
   "I can imagine!" remarked the fish. "And what does she want now?"
   "A big house!" murmured the fisherman, hesitantly.
   "All right! You were kind to me and you shall have your wish!" The
fisherman lingered on the way home, enjoying the feeling of making his wife
happy with a new house. The roof of the splendid new house was already in
sight, when his wife rushed up to him in a fury.
   "Look herel Now that we know how really powerfull this fish is, we can't be
content with only a house! We must ask for more! Run back and ask for a real
palace, not an ordinary house like this one! And fine clothes! And jewels
too!" The fisherman was quite upset. However, he had been henpecked for so
many years that he was unable to say "no", so he trudged back to the water's
edge. Full of doubts, he called the little fish, but it was some time before
it leapt from waves. In the meantime, the sea had begun to foam . . .
   "I'm sorry to trouble you again, but my wife has had second thoughts, and
she'd like a fine palace, and . . . and also. . ." Again the little fish
granted fisherman his wishes, but he  seemed less friendly than before. At
last, relieved at having been able to see his wife's desires fulfilled, the
good fisherman turned homewards. Home was now a magnificent palace. How
wonderful it was! At the top of a flight of steps leading to the palace, stood
his wife, dressed like a great lady and dripping with jewels, impatiently
waiting for him.                                -_
   "Go back and ask for . . ." But the fisherman broke in:
   "What? Such a fine palace! We must be content with what we have! Don't you
think that's asking too much? . . ."
   "Go back, I said! Do as you're told! And ask the fish to make me an
Empress!" The poor fisherman set off unhappily for the seashore. In the
meantime, a storm had blown up. The sky was black and terrible flashes of
lightning lit the darkness, while the waves crashed angrily on the beach.
Kneeling on the rock amidst the spray, in a low voice the fisherman began to
call the little fish. And when it came, he told it his wife's latest request.
But this time, after listening in silence, the little gold fish disappeared
beneath the waves without saying a word. And though the fisherman waited, the
little fish never came back. A great flash of lightning, much brighter than
all the others lit up the sky, and the fisherman saw that both the new house
and the palace had vanished without trace. The humble old cottage stood where
it had always been. But this time, his wife was waiting for him in tears.
   "It serves you right! We should have been pleased with what we had, instead
of always asking for more!" grumbled the fisherman angrily. But in the depths
of his heart, he was glad that everything had gone back to normal.
   Next day and every day, he went back to his fishing, but he never saw the
little goldfish again.
.