The Golden Fish

Once there was an old fisherman who lived with his wife in a little hut on the seashore.

And one fine day, before the sun came up, the fisherman rose from his bed, bade his dear wife good-bye, and went off as usual to cast his net in the sea and catch delicious fish.

When he reached the shore, he cast his net and tried to gather it in, and he felt that the net was very heavy. So he rejoiced in his heart and said: "Now I have had luck with a big catch — my wife Umm Abdallah will be delighted with it." But when he pulled the net out of the sea, he found it, alas, full of glass and sand and stones.

He cast the net a second time into the sea, and tried to gather it in again, but this time it was lighter than the first. He rejoiced again and said to himself: "Well, well — this can be nothing but fish." But alas again: the net was full of weeds, and the green and black grass that usually grows at the bottom of the sea.

And for all that, the poor fisherman was patient; he never despaired. He cast the net a third time, in a calm, clear spot of the sea, and sat waiting, his heart pounding and pounding as though it wanted to leap out of his breast. Then he began to draw in the net at his ease — and behold, in it was one single small fish, yellow as the color of gold. The fisherman took hold of it, and it was, in fact, a fish of gold.

"My, how lovely this little fish is!"

said the fisherman as he set it in his basket. But hardly had he opened the basket when the fish opened its mouth and began to speak... to speak in words just as we speak.

What did the fish say? It said: "O uncle, I beg you, don't put me in the basket — return me to the sea, for in the sea I shall be happier: I swim in freedom and joy in these beautiful blue waves."

The fisherman was astonished and wondered greatly, for in his whole life he had never heard a fish talk like people. But he took courage and said to it: "My little golden fish! I would love with all my heart to return you to the sea. And God forbid that I should keep you with me if you do not wish it."

"You are right," the golden fish answered him. "Then let me pay you a recompense. Ask of me what you will, and I am ready to give it to you with all my heart."

"No, my dear fish," the poor fisherman answered her. "I am in need of nothing. It is enough for me that I have lived to this day, to see with my own eyes a beautiful fish like you, and to hear with my own ears her lovely, soft voice." And he threw the fish before him into that wide, blue, clear sea, and gathered his net and put it in the little boat he had with him, and went back to the shore, and ran in haste to his house to tell his wife of this wondrous happening.

And hardly had he reached the house when his wife said to him: "What makes you run so, Abu Abdallah? Well? You have had luck today, God willing!"

And the fisherman began to tell his dear wife what had happened to him. How he cast the net into the sea a first time and a second time, and nothing came up in it. And how he cast it a third time and caught a golden fish that talks just like all people. And how he returned her to the sea because she wept and begged that of him, and told him to ask for whatever he needed, for she was ready to give it to him.

"Very well — what did you ask of her, Abu Abdallah?"

"Nothing," Abu Abdallah answered her. "What should I ask of her, when I am in need of nothing, my dear Umm Abdallah..."

Whereupon Umm Abdallah could do nothing but shriek: "What do you mean, in need of nothing, you simpleton? If only you had at least asked her for a new dress for me!"

"Ah, you are right, Umm Abdallah," Abu Abdallah answered her, and he ran a second time to the seashore and began to call: "My little golden fish — my little golden fish!"

"Yes. Yes," the fish answered him. "What do you want of me, my dear friend? I am ready for any service."

The fisherman answered her: "Ah — ah, my dear fish. I want nothing, but I have an old wife who needs a new dress, for her dress is old and torn."

"Never mind, my friend," the fish said to him. "Go back home, and God bless you."

The fisherman bade her farewell and went back to the house, and found his wife wearing the new dress. But instead of seeing her glad, he saw her cross, shouting in his face: "You simpleton, you half-wit! Why didn't you ask her for a new hut as well? Don't you know that our hut is tumbledown and old?"

And the poor fisherman went back a second time, and called out to the fish. And when she answered him, he told her what Umm Abdallah had asked of him, and she replied: "At your command. Go back home, and God bless you, dear friend."

And it happened that when the fisherman reached the house, he found that his old tumbledown hut had become a new hut, big as a palace. So he rejoiced and said: "Ah — this time Umm Abdallah must be glad and happy like me."

But alas, Umm Abdallah was not glad and happy. Why? That is what we want you to learn later on. Let us wait now until the news arrives.