'The Three Wishes'

'The Three Wishes', an illustration by John Vernon Lord in Aesop's Fables; 1989, page 43.

The Text:

The Three Wishes

A countryman caught a dwarf one day in a wood. The dwarf said to the man that if he’d set him free he would grant the countryman three wishes. The countryman’s wife demanded that she should choose the wishes, believing that her choice of would be better than his. The man therefore allowed his wife two of the three wishes. One day, when her husband was attempting to gnaw at a bone during suppertime, the wife said, “ I wish you had a beak to get the meat off that bone”. As soon as she uttered these words the man had a beak fixed upon his face. “Oh dear”, she said, “I wish you didn’t have that beak”, whereupon the man no longer had the beak, nor did he have a nose. Then it was the turn of the countryman to have his wish and he wished that his face could be restored to normal. And so, having used up all the three wishes nothing had been gained for the couple.

Text: JVL (adapted from La Fontaine).

Selected Parallels: Perry 668. La Fontaine Vll/6. TMI J2071.