Grimms' Fairy Tales

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THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE

There was once a fisherman who lived with his wife in a pigsty, close
by the seaside. The fisherman used to go out all day long a-fishing; and
one day, as he sat on the shore with his rod, looking at the sparkling
waves and watching his line, all on a sudden his float was dragged away
deep into the water: and in drawing it up he pulled out a great fish.
But the fish said, 'Pray let me live! I am not a real fish; I am an
enchanted prince: put me in the water again, and let me go!' 'Oh, ho!'
said the man, 'you need not make so many words about the matter; I will
have nothing to do with a fish that can talk: so swim away, sir, as soon
as you please!' 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
on the wave.

When the fisherman went home to his wife in the pigsty, he told her how
he had caught a great fish, and how it had told him it was an enchanted