Folk-Lore and Legends: Russian and Polish. Various
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and set the fashion.”
The old man went to the golden fish.
“What is it?” asked the fish.
“My wife will not let me rest,” replied the man; “she wants now to be an Archduchess, and is not content with being my wife.”
“Well, it shall be as she wishes. Go home again,” said the fish.
Away went the man. How astonished was he, when, on coming to where his house had stood, he now found a fine mansion, three stories high. Servants crowded the hall, and cooks were busy in the kitchens. On a seat in a fine room sat the man’s wife, dressed in robes shining with gold and silver, and giving orders.
“Good day, wife!” said the man.
“Who are you, man?” said his wife. “What have you to do with me, a fine lady? Take the clown away,” said she to her servants. “Take him to the stable, and whip some of the impudence out of him.”
The servants seized the old man, took him off to the stable, and when they had him there beat him so that he hardly knew whether he was alive or not. After that the wife made him the door-keeper of the house. She gave him a besom, and put him to keep the yard in order. As for his meals, he got them in the kitchen. He had a hard life of it. If the yard was not swept clean, he had to look out.
“Who would have thought she had been such a hag?” said the old man to himself. “Here she has all such good fortune, and will not even own me for her husband!”
After a time the wife got tired of being merely an Archduchess, so she said to her husband—
“Go off to the golden fish, and tell it I will be a Czarina.”
The old man went down to the shore. He cried—
“Little fish, little fish, come now to me,
Your tail in the water, your head out of sea!”
The fish came swimming to the shore.
“Well, old man!” it said, “what do you want?”
“My wife is not yet satisfied,” said the man; “she wants now to be a Czarina.”
“Do not let that trouble you,” said the fish, “but go to your house. What you ask shall be done.”
The man went back. In place of the fine house he found a palace with a roof of gold. Soldiers were on guard around it. In front of the palace was a garden, and at the back a fine park, in which some troops were parading. On a balcony stood the Czarina surrounded by officers and nobles. The troops presented arms, the drums beat, the trumpets blew, and the people shouted.
In a short time the woman got tired of being Czarina, and she commanded that her husband should be found and brought to her presence. The palace was all in confusion, for who knew what had become of the old man? Officers and noblemen hurried here and there to search for him. At length he was found in a hut behind the palace.
“Listen, you old idiot!” said his wife. “Go to the golden fish, and tell it that I am tired of being Czarina. I want to rule over all the ocean, to have dominion over every sea and all the fish.”
The old man hesitated to go to the fish with such a request.
“Be off!” said his wife, “or your head shall be cut off.”
The man went to the seashore and said—
“Little fish, little fish, come now to me,
Your tail in the water, your head out of sea!”
The fish did not come. The man waited, but it was not to be seen. Then he said the words a second time. The waves roared. A short while before it had been bright and calm, now dark clouds covered the sky, the wind howled, and the water seemed of an inky blackness.
At length the fish came.
“What do you want, old man?” it asked.
“My old wife,” answered he, “is not satisfied even now. She says she will be Czarina no longer, but will rule over all the waters and all the fish.”
The fish made no reply, but dived down and disappeared in the sea.
The man went back. What had become of the palace? He looked around, but could not see it. He rubbed his eyes in wonder. On the spot where the palace had stood was the old hut, and at the door stood the old woman in her old rags.
So they commenced to live again in their old style. The man often went a-fishing, but he never more caught the golden fish.
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