_THE GREEN FROG._
Following the toad, and saying good-bye to his mistress, Eva passed
unhurt through the falling stones, and picked her way carefully among
those which lay in the bed of the river, till they came to the turn
at which she had first caught sight of the Cascade of Rocks. There
the toad hopped quickly on shore, and then he hopped across a large
plain of mud, in which grew a multitude of toad-stools, and on every
toad-stool, or mushroom, there sat either a frog or a toad, and in
the mud at their feet were countless numbers of snakes and lizards,
their long, shining bodies and tails coiled around the stalks of the
toad-stools.
It was almost impossible for Eva to make any progress through the mud,
over which the toad, big as he was, hopped so lightly. Still, she
succeeded in crossing the field after him, though when they reached a
firmer soil, Eva was fairly ashamed of her dress, on which there was so
much mud; and when they came to a little pool of clear water, in which
she saw herself reflected, she wondered for a moment who that dirty
little girl could be; and then she laughed to think how very different
this little mud-stained figure was from the white-robed maiden who had
passed without a soil or a spot on her dress through the forests of
Shadow-Land.
At last they came in sight of a little hut, built of rough stones,
with a huge toad-stool for a roof, directly in the middle of a field,
which was full of little pools of water. The field was surrounded by a
strange fence, in which the posts were all toad-stools, and the rails
all spider-webs. On each toad-stool a green frog was sitting, and in
every web there hung either a red or a black spider. When they came
to this fence, the toad, after going up to one of the green frogs and
croaking something to him, turned round without so much as saying
“good-bye” to Eva, and hopped away just as fast as he could go; and
then one of the toad-stools; with the web attached to it, swung open as
if it had been on a hinge, so that Eva could enter the inclosure.
She went up to the door of the hut and knocked. And the third time
that she knocked the door was opened by a large jackdaw, which Eva
immediately recognized as the same bird which she had seen on the
brook, dressed in the peacock feathers which he had stolen from the
Toad-Woman’s fan; but although she knew him in a moment, he evidently
did not know her, she was so very muddy, and so unlike her own self. In
the hut, on a toad-stool, which served as a chair, sat the same Green
Frog, with a little shawl over her shoulders, she had seen before,
which had tried to carry Aster off, and had torn his coat; and it was
with some little hesitation that Eva went up to her, and curtsied to
her. And then, as she had been told, she asked the Frog if she needed a
servant.
The Green Frog inspected her from head to foot.
“You are pretty dirty,” she said to Eva, “and I don’t think that I
ever saw you before. But that don’t matter. You will have to work
out-of-doors, and if you do your work properly, at the end of the week
you may ask for your own wages. But if you don’t work well, I will
give you nothing, but I will turn you into a frog, and put you on a
toad-stool, as I have done with a great many before you.”
Eva thought to herself that perhaps the Frog never before had a servant
like herself, so she told her that she was still willing to hire
herself. Then the Frog told the jackdaw to take the new servant out and
tell her what she was to do.
So the jackdaw hopped out, and Eva followed him. And when he told her
what her work for that week was to be, she thought it was very funny
work. And then he told her she might do as she pleased for the rest
of that day, but the next morning she must go to work. And Eva amused
herself by looking everywhere for Aster. But he was not to be seen.
Only, just over the back-door of the hut, there hung a little wire
cage, and in it there sat a little green bird, which screamed whenever
the jackdaw or the Frog even looked at it. And when it began to grow
dark, these two took the little bird out of his cage and picked out
his tail and wing-feathers, the bird screaming and struggling all the
time, and then they put him back into the cage. And it was just as much
afraid of Eva as it was of the jackdaw and the Frog.
There was neither sun nor moon in this place,--as in the forest, when
the moon was gone, all the light seemed to come from the earth. And
every morning Eva noticed that the tail and wing-feathers of the little
green bird had grown again, though every evening either the Frog or the
jackdaw pulled them out.
I said that when Eva was told of the work she would have to do she
thought it was very queer work. Every morning, when the light drove
away the darkness, she was to wipe off and dust the tops of the
toad-stools on which the frogs sat, and she thought it would be very
easy to do. So she tried to do it, and the jackdaw stood on one foot
and cawed at her all the time,--and the more she rubbed and wiped the
top of the toad-stool post the dirtier it became,--and she was nearly
in despair, when she heard one of the frogs whisper to the other,--
“If she would only catch the jackdaw and sweep one off with his tail,
she would have no more trouble.”
And Eva did as the frog had said, and though the jackdaw screamed and
struggled, and tried to get away, it did him no good. But she found
that when she had swept one toad-stool off that all the rest were as
clean and nice as possible, and there was nothing more to be done to
any of them. And every evening before the Green Frog went to sleep--she
slept every night in a little pond or pool in the corner of the
hut--Eva had to walk around the inclosure and count the spiders and see
that their webs were whole. But she never had any trouble,--the webs
were always whole; and one of the spiders was sure to tell her how many
of them there were.
So a whole week went by, and every morning Eva caught the jackdaw and
swept one toad-stool off with his tail. Now, Mr. Jackdaw did not at all
approve of this, and in the morning, when he saw Eva coming, he would
run away and hide himself. Then Eva would stoop down and pretend to
whisper to one of the frogs; and the jackdaw, who was very inquisitive,
would be so terribly afraid that something might be said that he would
like to hear, that he would come running up in a great hurry, only to
be caught and used as a living duster.
And when the week was over Eva presented herself to the Green Frog,
and asked for her wages. And then the old Frog asked her what she
wanted. And Eva did as the Toad-Woman had told her, and said she would
like to go and consult her mother. This she was allowed to do, and Eva
returned, by the same road by which the brown toad had led her, to the
grotto behind the Cascade of Rocks.
There sat the Toad-Woman, fanning herself, just as if she had never
moved since Eva first saw her. And she knew all about the work Eva had
to do without Eva’s telling her. She told Eva to ask for the little
green coat which hung at the head of her mistress’s bed (if you can
call a pool of water a bed). “She will refuse you,” the woman went on,
“but you must insist. You have earned it, and will get it in the end.”
Eva thanked her, and then returned to the hut. And sitting in the door
was the Frog; and she said to her that she was ready for her wages.
“What am I to give you?” croaked the Frog.
“Nothing but the little green coat which hangs at the head of your bed.”
Then the Frog told her that she could not give her that, and offered
her all sorts of beautiful things instead. But Eva insisted upon
having the little green coat; and as fairies--even when they are bad
fairies--are compelled to keep their promises or else lose their power,
the Frog had to keep her word; and she told Eva that if she could find
the little coat she might have it.
So Eva went into the hut and looked over the pool in which the
Frog slept; and hanging against the wall were little green coats
innumerable, which surprised Eva, for she never had seen anything
hanging there before; and they all looked so much alike that she did
not know which to choose. Then it seemed to her that a mist gathered
in her eyes, and she raised her hand to rub it away, and then she saw,
sitting on one of the little green coats, a beautiful, pure white
moth; and then Eva saw that the other coats were only shadows, and the
one on which the white moth sat was Aster’s coat. So she took it down,
and the moth never moved,--and then it spoke:
“Do you remember the tiny worm that you saved from the crawling twig?
I was that worm; and this is the first opportunity I have had to thank
you for saving my life, and the best service I could render you was
this.”
And without waiting to be thanked, the white moth spread her wings and
was gone.
The Green Frog was angry enough when she saw that Eva had chosen
rightly. But there was nothing to be done, only she grumbled to herself
and said,--she did not know that Eva heard her:
“The coat is useless without the piece.”
However, she hired Eva on the same terms for another week. For she
thought that if the new servant failed this time she would not only
change her into a frog, but get the little coat back. And the work Eva
had to do this week was to empty, and then refill with fresh water
every morning, the pool in which the Frog slept, and they gave her a
pail with no bottom to do it with.
And Eva would have been in a sad way if she had not heard the jackdaw
say, as he stood by the pool:
“Our new servant is caught at last; for, if she did take me for a broom
last week, she will never have sense enough to know that if she shakes
her pail over the pool and says ‘Water, go,’ it will empty itself, and
then ‘Water, come,’ and she will have no more trouble.”
And then out hopped the jackdaw, and never knew that Eva heard him. And
she found he was right; and she noticed, too, that this week they only
pulled out the little green bird’s wing-feathers, and never touched his
tail.
She did her work this time without any trouble. At the end of the week
it was the same thing over again about the wages, and again Eva went to
the Toad-Woman, and was told what she should do.
So she said to the Green Frog, “My coat is useless as long as it has a
hole in it. You can give me the jackdaw’s best cravat to mend it with.”
The Frog laughed at this, and told Eva to go and get it. She did not
know that the jackdaw, being fond of dress, and a thief, had stolen the
piece of Aster’s coat for that purpose. However, she found it out soon
enough, and when Eva went to look for it,--behold! a great spider had
spun a web around it,--a web so strong that she could not break it. And
after trying a long time, she was nearly in despair, when she saw a
little gray mouse come out of a hole, and, climbing up to the web, gnaw
and bite at it with its sharp teeth till it cut it all through; and
then it brought and laid in her hand the same piece of velvet which had
been torn out of Aster’s coat. Then the little mouse said to her:
“You saved me from being drowned, and I am not ungrateful.” And then it
crept back into its hole.
But when the Green Frog saw what Eva had, she was very angry, and
determined to give her something which was harder to do than anything
she had yet tried. So for the third week Eva’s work was to wash and
keep the shawl clean which the Frog wore when she went out. And the
first time that Eva tried to wash it she found that the harder she
rubbed it, and the more she tried to clean it, the dirtier it became.
But late in the day she heard the Green Frog say to the jackdaw:
“I’ll get my coat back, and you shall have your cravat again, for the
servant is such a dunce that she will never learn that the only way
to clean my shawl is to lay it on a toad-stool, and to walk around it
three times, and say every time, ‘Shawl, be clean.’”
But Eva’s ears were given to her for use, and, consequently, every
night the shawl was like new. And this week she saw that they only
plucked one of the little bird’s wings. The end of the week came, and
Eva, instructed by the Toad-Woman, asked for her wages.
“What is it this time?”
“I want the little green bird that hangs in the cage over the
back-door.”
“No,” said the Frog, “I cannot give him to you.”
“You cannot help it,” Eva said, quietly; “you promised to pay me, and I
have earned my wages.’
“Who told you anything about the little green bird,” the Frog went on.
“He won’t sing for you, and you had better let me give you a purse full
of gold.”
But no, Eva would take nothing but the bird, and at last the Frog told
her to go and take him, if she could find him. And then she went into
the hut, grumbling and talking to herself.
Eva went to the back of the house to look for the little green bird.
When she got there she did not know what to do, for there were at
least fifty cages there, and in each cage was a little green bird, and
cages and birds were all exactly alike,--there was no telling them
apart,--and which the one she wanted could be Eva did not know. And if
she chose the wrong one, all her work would be lost.
Yet, look as she might, she could not tell which was the right one.
Then there was a flutter of wings in the air, and then she felt
something pull her dress, and there at her feet was a beautiful
bird, holding her dress in its beak, and it led her round and round
the cages, and every cage that her dress touched melted away and
disappeared, till there was only one cage and one bird left, and then
the new bird never hesitated, but lit on the top of this cage, and then
he said to Eva:
“This is Aster, who was changed by the Green Frog into this form. He
cannot regain his own shape without you, and the Toad-Woman will tell
you what you are to do. As soon as the Frog misses him she will know
who you are, which she does not yet know, and she will do her best
to get him away from you. Go at once, and without any delay, to the
Cascade of Rocks. Your friend there will help you. And remember that a
kind action never goes unrewarded.”
And then the bird was gone, and Eva was alone. She tried to open the
cage and take the little green bird out, but there was no such thing as
opening it. So she took the cage, and the coat, which she had mended,
and the piece had grown into the velvet, so that you never could tell
that it had been torn, and without going again into the hut or telling
the Frog she had found the bird, she went, for the last time, by the
same road by which she had come, to the grotto of the Toad-Woman.
But she had not been gone many minutes before the Green Frog, wondering
that her servant did not return to hire herself again, went in search
of her. And the moment she saw that the bird was gone she knew who Eva
was, and that she had discovered Aster; and, angry at herself for her
own stupidity, she immediately set off in pursuit, hoping it was not
yet too late to regain the prizes she had lost.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]