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 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 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 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.
