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, that rose in
the midst 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 upon the ground, till 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. Then she began to
bewail her loss, 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 want not 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 upon 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
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 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 he 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 fat- ed 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
gay 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 bewailed 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.
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