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.' |