I liked it very well , ' said the lad , ` for never in all my days have I been able to rise so high . ' The troll then showed him the two bushels of money which he had earned that year , and the lad was well content to remain in his service for another year . Next day he got his old task of feeding all the wild beasts . When this was done the troll again said some words to him , and at these he turned into a fish , and sprang into the river . He swam up and he swam down , and thought it was pleasant to let himself drive with the stream . In this way he came right out into the sea , and swam further and further out . At last he came to a glass palace , which stood at the bottom of the sea . He could see into all the rooms and halls , where everything was very grand ; all the furniture was of white ivory , inlaid with gold and pearl . There were soft rugs and cushions of all the colours of the rainbow , and beautiful carpets that looked like the finest moss , and flowers and trees with curiously crooked branches , both green and yellow , white and red , and there were also little fountains which sprang up from the most beautiful snail-shells , and fell into bright mussel-shells , and at the same time made a most delightful music , which filled the whole palace . The most beautiful thing of all , however , was a young girl who went about there , all alone . She went about from one room to another , but did not seem to be happy with all the grandeur she had about her . She walked in solitude and melancholy , and never even thought of looking at her own image in the polished glass walls that were on every side of her , although she was the prettiest creature anyone could wish to see . The lad thought so too while he swam round the palace and peeped in from every side . ` Here , indeed , it would be better to be a man than such a poor dumb fish as I am now , ' said he to himself ; ` if I could only remember the words that the troll says when he changes my shape , then perhaps I could help myself to become a man again . ' He swam and he pondered and he thought over this until he remembered the sound of what the troll said , and then he tried to say it himself . In a moment he stood in human form at the bottom of the sea . He made haste then to enter the glass palace , and went up to the young girl and spoke to her . At first he nearly frightened the life out of her , but he talked to her so kindly and explained how he had come down there that she soon recovered from her alarm , and was very pleased to have some company to relieve the terrible solitude that she lived in . Time passed so quickly for both of them that the youth -LRB- for now he was quite a young man , and no more a lad -RRB- forgot altogether how long he had been there . One day the girl said to him that now it was close on the time when he must become a fish again -- the troll would soon call him home , and he would have to go , but before that he must put on the shape of the fish , otherwise he could not pass through the sea alive .
Before this , while he was staying down there , she had told him XXXXX she was a daughter of the same troll whom the youth served , and he had shut her up there to keep her away from everyone .
At about before if in into over than that to