The Frog Prince

The Frog Prince

One day a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs, and went out to take a walk by herself in a wood. When she came to a pool with a rose in the middle of it, she sat herself down to rest a while. Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her favourite plaything.  After a time she threw it up so high that she missed catching it as it fell; and the ball bounded away until at last it fell down into the pool. The princess looked into the pool for her ball, but it was very deep that she could not see the bottom of it. She began to cry.

            While she was speaking, a frog put its head out of the water, and said, “Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?”. “Oh!' she said, “My golden ball has fallen into the pool.” The frog said, 'I do not want your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes, but if you will love me, and let me live with you and eat from your plate, and sleep on your bed, I will bring you your ball again.”  So she said to the frog, “Well, if you will bring me my ball, I will do all you ask.”

Then the frog put his head down, and dived deep under the water; and after a little while he came up again, with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the edge of the pool.  As soon as the princess saw her ball, she ran to pick it up and she was so overjoyed to have it in her hand again, that she never thought of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could. The frog called after her, “Stay, princess, and take me with you as you said.” But she did not stop to hear a word.

 The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a strange noise - as if something was coming up the marble staircase, and soon afterwards there was a gentle knock at the door, and a little voice cried out and said, “Open the door, my princess dear,  Open the door for your true love here! And the promise that you and I made by the pool”. Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw the frog, whom she had quite forgotten. At this sight she was sadly frightened, and shutting the door as fast as she could came back to her seat. The frog knocked again at the door, and said the same words again.

Finally she opened the door and let the frog came in, eating from her plate. When he had eaten as much, she took him up in her hand, and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long. After the frog was asleep the princess bent down and kissed him. When the princess awoke on the following morning she was astonished to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince, gazing on her with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen and standing at the head of her bed.

            He told her that he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy, who had changed him into a frog and that he had been fated to be a frog till a princess take him out of the pool, and let him eat from her plate, and sleep upon her bed and kiss him. “You have broken his cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish except marrying you, and love you as long as you live.” The princess happily said yes and they both lived happy ever after.