In which this story comes to a very satisfying end, at last

The Golden Fish (Russia)

There was once a fisherman who lived with his wife in a hovel close by the seaside.

The fisherman used to go out all day long a-fishing; and one fine blue day his net caught a beautiful golden fish. 

But the fish said, "Let me live! I am not a real fish. I am the king under the sea. Put me in the water again, and let me go!"

"Oh, ho!" said the man. "I will have nothing to do with a fish that can talk, so swim away, sir, as soon as you please!"

When the fisherman went home to his wife, he told her how he had caught a golden fish, and how it had told him it was the king under the sea, and how he had let it go again.

"Did you ask it for anything?" Said the wife. "We live very wretchedly here in this little hovel by the sea.  Go back and tell the fish we want a snug little cottage."

The fisherman went to the seashore, and when he got back there the water looked all smooth and green. He stood at the water’s edge, and said,

"Reward me now, O golden fish!  Grant to me a simple wish!”

Then the fish swam to him and said, "What is your wish?  What do you want?”

"My wife says that when I caught you, I ought to have asked you for something before I let you go. She does not like living in a hovel by the sea and wants a snug 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 nice trim little cottage with roses growing over the roof.  "Ah!" Said the fisherman, "How happily we shall live now!"

Everything went right for a week or two, and then the wife said, "Husband, there is not nearly room enough for us in this cottage. 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 easy with this pretty cottage to live in."

"Nonsense!" Said the wife. "He will do it very willingly, I know. Go along and try!"

The fisherman went, but his heart was very heavy: and when he came to the sea, it looked grey and gloomy, though it was very calm.

He went close to the edge of the waves, and said,

"Reward me now, O golden fish!  Grant to me a simple wish!”

"What do you want now?" said the fish.

"My wife wants to live in a stone castle."

 "Go home then," said the fish, "she is standing at the gate of it already."

 So away went the fisherman and found his wife standing before the gate of a great castle. "Well," said the man, "now we will live cheerful and happy in this beautiful castle for the rest of our lives."

But the next morning, the wife said "Get up, husband, for we must be king of all the land."

"Wife, wife," said the man, "why should we wish to be the king? I will not be king."

"Then I will," said she. "But wife," said the fisherman, "how can you be king? The fish cannot make you a king!"

"Husband," said she, "say no more about it, but go and try! I will be king."

This time the sea looked a dark grey colour, and was overspread with curling waves and the ridges of foam as he cried out,

"Reward me now, O golden fish!  Grant to me a simple wish!”

"The wife again?” asked the fish.

"Alas!" Said the poor man. "She wants to be king."

"Go home," said the fish, "she is king already."

Then the fisherman went home and found his wife sitting on a throne of gold and diamonds, with a golden crown upon her head. 

"Well, wife," said the fisherman, "are you king?"

 "Yes," said she, "I am king."

 "Well, wife," replied he, "it is a grand thing to be king and now you must be easy, for you can be nothing greater."

 Then they went to bed, but the wife could not sleep all night for thinking what she should be next. At last, as she was dropping asleep, morning broke, and the sun rose.

She woke her husband.  “I must be the sun.  Go to the fish at once!"

 Then the man crept towards the sea, which had risen up into a dreadful storm.

 "Reward me now, O golden fish!  Grant to me a simple wish!”

 "What does she want now?" Said the fish.

 "She wants to be the sun and moon."

 "Go home," said the fish, "to your hovel by the sea.”

 

And there they live to this very day.