_In which some selfish people meet their just fate._
Once, long years ago, there lived a goddess called Latona. Juno,
the queen of the gods, became jealous of her, and drove her and her
two little children away from their home. So Latona wandered around
and around with her two little children, who were called Apollo and
Diana.
One day she came to a beautiful valley and nearby saw a pond of
clear water where some people were gathering willows and osiers.
Latona was very tired and thirsty, for she had traveled a long
way, and she knelt down to get a drink of water. But the people
stopped her and would not let her drink. Latona asked them why they
would not let her get a drink of water.
“Water is free to all,” she said. “Mother Nature does not let any
one claim as property the sunshine, the air, or the water. I do
not want to bathe in this water; I only want a drink to quench my
thirst. I ask it of you as a favor. My mouth is so dry I can hardly
talk. Please let me have a drink of water. See these children
holding out their little hands--surely you cannot refuse them!”
And the children stretched out their little hands to the people.
But the people laughed and told her they would hurt her if she did
not go away; and they waded into the pond and stirred up the mud
with their feet so that the water was not fit to drink.
At this the people laughed as if it were a good joke. The little
children cried when they saw how muddy the water was, for they were
thirsty. The people did not know they were dealing with a goddess,
but they were soon to find out.
Latona became very angry, and lifting up her hands to heaven,
said: “May they never leave that pond, but live there all their
lives!” And all at once those selfish people began to change. They
shriveled up to small size, but their eyes became big and their
mouths wide stretched, their feet became webbed and they dived into
the pond.
And those people still live there. Sometimes they sit under the
water; sometimes raising their heads above the water or swimming
about on the pond. Sometimes they come out on the bank, but soon
jump back, for the water calls them.
Whenever you pass a pond or lake you hear their hoarse voices.
Their throats are bloated, their voices are harsh, their mouths
have become stretched from so much croaking; their necks have
shrunk up and disappeared altogether, and their heads are joined
close to their bodies. Their backs are green, their stomachs white,
and when we hear them now croaking and quarreling among themselves
we say: “Listen to the frogs! they are certainly talking to-night!”