Household Tales | Page 4

my ball back again." She, however, thought, "How the silly
frog does talk! He lives in the water with the other frogs, and croaks,
and can be no companion to any human being!"
But the frog when he had received this promise, put his head into the
water and sank down, and in a short while came swimmming up again
with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the grass. The King's
daughter was delighted to see her pretty plaything once more, and
picked it up, and ran away with it. "Wait, wait," said the frog. "Take me
with thee. I can't run as thou canst." But what did it avail him to scream
his croak, croak, after her, as loudly as he could? She did not listen to it,
but ran home and soon forgot the poor frog, who was forced to go back
into his well again.
The next day when she had seated herself at table with the King and all
the courtiers, and was eating from her little golden plate, something
came creeping splish splash, splish splash, up the marble staircase, and
when it had got to the top, it knocked at the door and cried, "Princess,
youngest princess, open the door for me." She ran to see who was
outside, but when she opened the door, there sat the frog in front of it.
Then she slammed the door to, in great haste, sat down to dinner again,
and was quite frightened. The King saw plainly that her heart was
beating violently, and said, "My child, what art thou so afraid of? Is
there perchance a giant outside who wants to carry thee away?" "Ah,
no," replied she. "It is no giant but a disgusting frog."
"What does a frog want with thee?" "Ah, dear father, yesterday as I was
in the forest sitting by the well, playing, my golden ball fell into the
water. And because I cried so, the frog brought it out again for me, and
because he so insisted, I promised him he should be my companion, but

I never thought he would be able to come out of his water! And now he
is outside there, and wants to come in to me."
In the meantime it knocked a second time, and cried,
"Princess! youngest princess! Open the door for me! Dost thou not
know what thou saidst to me
Yesterday by the cool waters of the fountain? Princess, youngest
princess! Open the door for me!"
Then said the King, "That which thou hast promised must thou perform.
Go and let him in." She went and opened the door, and the frog hopped
in and followed her, step by step, to her chair. There he sat and cried,
"Lift me up beside thee." She delayed, until at last the King
commanded her to do it. When the frog was once on the chair he
wanted to be on the table, and when he was on the table he said, "Now,
push thy little golden plate nearer to me that we may eat together." She
did this, but it was easy to see that she did not do it willingly. The frog
enjoyed what he ate, but almost every mouthful she took choked her.
At length he said, "I have eaten and am satisfied; now I am tired, carry
me into thy little room and make thy little silken bed ready, and we will
both lie down and go to sleep."
The King's daughter began to cry, for she was afraid of the cold frog
which she did not like to touch, and which was now to sleep in her
pretty, clean little bed. But the King grew angry and said, "He who
helped thee when thou wert in trouble ought not afterwards to be
despised by thee." So she took hold of the frog with two fingers, carried
him upstairs, and put him in a corner. But when she was in bed he crept
to her and said, "I am tired, I want to sleep as well as thou, lift me up or
I will tell thy father." Then she was terribly angry, and took him up and
threw him with all her might against the wall. "Now, thou wilt be quiet,
odious frog," said she. But when he fell down he was no frog but a
King's son with beautiful kind eyes. He by her father's will was now her
dear companion and husband. Then he told her how he had been
bewitched by a wicked witch, and how no one could have delivered
him from the well but herself, and that to-morrow they would go

together into his kingdom. Then they went to sleep, and next morning
when the sun awoke them, a carriage came driving up with