The Frog Prince

One fine evening a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs,

and went out to take a walk by herself in a wood;
and when she came to a cool spring of water 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; and she was always
tossing it up into the air, and catching it again as it fell.

After a time she threw it up so high that
she missed catching it as it fell; and the ball
bounded away, and rolled along on the ground, until at last
it fell down into the spring.
The princess looked into the spring after her ball,
but it was very deep, so deep that
she could not see the bottom of it.
She began to cry, and said, 'Alas! if I
could only get my ball again, I would give all my fine
clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the world.

Whilst she was speaking, a frog put its
head out of the water, and said, 'Princess, why do you
weep so bitterly?'

'Alas!' said she, 'what can you do for me,
you nasty frog? My golden ball has fallen into the spring.'

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 off your golden plate,
and sleep on your bed, I will bring you your ball again.'

'What nonsense,' thought the princess,
'this silly frog is talking! He can never
even get out of the spring to visit me, though he may be able
to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him
he shall have what he asks.'

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 spring.

As soon as the young 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 - tap, tap - plash, plash -
as if something was coming up the marble
staircase, and soon after wards 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 to thy true love here!

And mind the words that thou and I said

By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'

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 king, her father, seeing that something had frightened her,
asked her what was the matter.

'There is a nasty frog,' said she, 'at the door,
that lifted my ball for me out of the
spring this morning. I told him that he
should live with me here, thinking that he could never get out of the spring; but there he is at the door,
and he wants to come in.'

While she was speaking the frog knocked again
at the door, and said:

'Open the door, my princess dear,

Open the door to thy true love here!

And mind the words that thou and I said

By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'

Then the king said to the young princess,
'As you have given your word you
must keep it; so go and let him in.'

She did so, and the frog hopped into the
room, and then straight on - tap, tap
- plash, plash - from the bottom of the
room to the top, till he came up close
to the table where the princess sat.

'Pray lift me upon chair,' said he to the princess,
'and let me sit next to you.'

As soon as she had done this, the frog said,
'Put your plate nearer to me, that I may eat out of it.'

This she did, and when he had eaten as much
as he could, he said, 'Now I am tired;
carry me upstairs, and put me into your bed.'
And the princess, though very unwilling,
took him up in her hand, and put him upon
the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long.

As soon as it was light the frog jumped up,
hopped downstairs, and went out of the house.

'Now, then,' thought the princess,
'at last he is gone, and I shall be troubled with him no more.'

But she was mistaken; for when
night came again she heard the same tapping at the door;
and the frog came once more, and said:

'Open the door, my princess dear,

Open the door to thy true love here!

And mind the words that thou and I said

By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'

And when the princess opened the door
the frog came in, and slept upon her
pillow as before, till the morning broke.
And the third night he did the same.
But 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 so to abide till some princess should take
him out of the spring, and let him eat from
her plate, and sleep upon her bed for three nights.

'You,' said the prince, 'have broken his cruel charm,
and now I have nothing to wish for but
that you should go with me into my father's
kingdom, where I will marry you, and love you
as long as you live.'

The young princess, you may be sure,
was not long in saying 'Yes' to all this;
and as they spoke a brightly coloured coach
drove up, with eight beautiful horses, decked
with plumes of feathers and a golden harness;
and behind the coach rode the prince's
servant, faithful Heinrich, who had be
wailed the misfortunes of his dear master
during his enchantment so long and so bitterly,
that his heart had well-nigh burst.

They then took leave of the king, and got into
the coach with eight horses, and all set
out, full of joy and merriment, for the prince's
kingdom, which they reached safely; and there they lived
happily a great many years.