There was once a king who had one only daughter, and her he loved as he
loved the apple of his eye.
One day the Princess sat beside a fountain in the gardens, and played
with a golden ball. She threw it up into the air and caught it again,
and the ball shone and glittered in the sunshine so that she laughed
aloud with pleasure. But presently as she caught at the ball she missed
it, and it rolled across the grass and fell into the fountain. There it
sank to the bottom. The Princess tried and tried to reach it, but she
could not. Then she began to weep, and her tears dripped down into the
fountain.
“Princess, Princess, why are you weeping?” asked a hoarse voice.
The Princess looked about her, and there was a great squat green frog
sitting on the edge of the fountain.
“I am weeping, Froggie, because I have dropped my ball into the water
and I cannot get it again,” answered the Princess.
“And what will you give me if I get it for you?”
“Anything in the world, dear Frog, except the ball itself.”
“I wish you to give me nothing, Princess,” said the frog. “But if I
bring back your ball to you will you let me be your little playmate?
Will you let me sit at your table, and eat from your plate, and drink
from your mug, and sleep in your little bed?”
“Yes, yes,” cried the Princess. She was very willing to promise, for
she did not believe the frog could ever leave the fountain, or come up
the palace steps.
“Very well, then that is a promise,” said the frog, and at once he
plunged into the fountain and brought back the ball to the Princess in
his arms.
The little girl took the ball and ran away with it without even
stopping to thank him.
[Illustration]
That evening the child sat at supper with her father, and she ate from
her golden plate, and drank from her golden mug, and she did not even
give a thought to the frog down in the fountain.
Presently there came a knocking at the door, but it was so soft that
no one heard it but the Princess. Then the knocking came again, and a
hoarse voice cried, “King’s daughter, King’s daughter, let me in. Have
you forgotten the promise you made me by the fountain?”
The Princess was frightened. She slipped down from her chair, and ran
to the door, and opened it and looked out. There on the top-most step
sat the great green frog.
When the Princess saw him she shut the door quickly, and came back to
the table, and she was very pale.
“Who was that at the door?” asked the King.
“It was no one,” answered the Princess.
“But there was surely someone there,” said the King.
“It was only a great green frog from the fountain,” said the Princess.
And then she told her father how she had dropped her ball into the
fountain, and how the frog had brought it back to her, and of what she
had promised him.
“What you have promised that you must perform,” said the King. “Open
the door, my daughter, and let him in.”
Very unwillingly the child went back to the door and opened it; the
frog hopped into the room. When she returned to the table, the frog
hopped along close at her heels.
She sat down and began to eat. “King’s daughter, King’s daughter, set
me upon the table that I too may eat from your golden plate,” said the
frog.
The Princess would have refused, but she dared not because of what her
father had said. She lifted the frog to the table, and there he ate
from her plate, but she herself could touch nothing.
“I am thirsty,” said the frog. “Tilt your golden mug that I may drink
from it.”
The Princess did as he bade her, but as she did so she could not help
weeping so that her tears ran down into the milk.
When supper was ended the Princess was about to hurry away to her room,
but the frog called to her, “King’s daughter, King’s daughter, take me
along. Have you forgotten that I was to sleep in your little white bed?”
“That you shall not,” cried the Princess in a passion. “Go back to the
stones of the fountain, where you belong.”
“What you have said that you must do,” said the King. “Take the frog
with you.”
The Princess shuddered, but she dared not refuse.
She took the frog with her up to her room, and put him down in the
darkest corner, where she would not see him. Then she undressed and
went to bed. But scarcely had her head touched the pillow when she
heard the frog calling her.
“King’s daughter, King’s daughter! Is this the way you keep your
promise? Lift me up to the bed, for the floor is cold and hard.”
The Princess sprang from the bed and seized the frog in her hands.
“Miserable frog,” she cried, “you shall not torment me in this way.” So
saying she threw the frog against the wall with all her force.
But no sooner did the frog touch the wall than it turned into a
handsome young prince, all dressed in green, with a golden crown upon
his head, and a chain of emeralds about his neck.
The Prince came to her, and took her by the hand.
“Dear Princess,” said he, “you have broken the enchantment that held
me. A cruel fairy was angry with my father, and so she changed me into
a frog, and put me there in the fountain. But now that the enchantment
is broken we can really be playmates, and when you are old enough you
shall be my wife.”
The Princess did not say no. She was delighted at the thought of having
such a handsome playmate. And as for marrying him later on, she was
quite willing for that, too.
So the Prince stayed there in the palace, and the King was very glad to
think he was to have him for a son-in-law, and when he and the Princess
were married, there was great rejoicing and feasting through all the
kingdom.
The Prince, however, was not willing to stay away from his own kingdom
any longer. He said he must return to see his old father.
One day a handsome golden coach drawn by eight white horses drove up
to the door. It had been sent by the Prince’s father to fetch him home
again. Upon the box rode the faithful servant who had cared for the
Prince when he was a child.
When the Prince had been carried away by the fairy this faithful
servant had grieved so bitterly he had feared his heart would break. To
keep this from happening he had put three great iron bands around his
body.
The Prince and the Princess entered the coach, and away went the
horses. They had not driven far, however, when a loud crack was heard.
“What is that?” cried the Princess. “Surely something has broken.”
“Yes, mistress,” answered the faithful servant,
“It was a band that bound my heart.
My joy hath broken it apart.”
They drove a little farther, and then there came another crack, even
louder than the first.
“Surely the coach is breaking down,” cried the Prince.
“Nay, master,” answered the faithful servant,
“’Tis but my joy that rives apart
The second band that held my heart.”
A little farther on there came a crack that was louder than any.
“Now surely something has broken,” cried the Prince and Princess
together.
“’Tis the last band that held my heart,
And joy has riven all apart,”
answered the servant.
After that they drove on quietly until they reached their own country.
There the Prince and Princess lived in happiness to the end of their
lives, and the faithful servant with them.