Whereat the flounder, swimming near,
Said, "Why again am I summoned here?"
And the trembling fisherman answered thus:
"My dame is always making a fuss;
She deems our mansion poorly planned;
She wants a palace great and grand!"
"Go home," said the fish, "this very minute;
The palace is there--you'll find her in it!"
He hied him home in haste, and, lo!
The fisherman found it even so,
And he cried, "How happy we shall be!"
But the woman answered, "We shall see!"
When a day was past, with growing pride,
For regal power the woman sighed;
And she bade the fisherman tell the fish
To reign as a king was now her wish.
To mind the dame he was sadly loth,
But he feared the woman when she was wroth,
So he went again to the ocean-side,
And softly thus the fisherman cried:
"O good flounder in the sea,
Hither quickly come to me;
For Pauline, my loving dame,
Wants queer things I fear to name."
Whereat the flounder, swimming near,
Said, "Why again am I summoned here?"