Then the pike said to him in a human voice: “Let me go free, good man, go free. I will make you happy; whatever your soul may desire you shall possess. You need only say:

At the pike’s good pleasure,

By God’s good measure⁠—

At the pike’s good pleasure, By God’s good measure⁠—

let this or that appear! and you will get it at once.”

So the peasant put the pike back into the water, went to his hut, sat down at the table and said: