was cleaning the fish, and had tucked up her gown so that her
feet were visible, she suddenly heard a voice, which said:

'Let down, let down thy petticoat
That lets thy feet be seen.'

She turned round in surprise, and then she saw the little
creature, the Golden Crab.

'What! You can speak, can you, you ridiculous crab?' she said,
for she was not quite pleased at the Crab's remarks. Then she
took him up and placed him on a dish.

When her husband came home and they sat down to dinner, they
presently heard the Crab's little voice saying, 'Give me some
too.' They were all very much surprised, but they gave him
something to eat. When the old man came to take away the plate
which had contained the Crab's dinner, he found it full of gold,
and as the same thing happened every day he soon became very fond
of the Crab.

One day the Crab said to the fisherman's wife, 'Go to the King
and tell him I wish to marry his younger daughter.'

The old woman went accordingly, and laid the matter before the
King, who laughed a little at the notion of his daughter marrying
a crab, but did not decline the proposal altogether, because he
was a prudent monarch, and knew that the Crab was likely to be a
prince in disguise. He said, therefore, to the fisherman's wife,
'Go, old woman, and tell the Crab I will give him my daughter if