In olden times there lived a King whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so lovely that the sun himself wondered at her beauty every time he looked into her face.
Near to the King’s castle lay a dark, gloomy forest; and in the forest, under an old linden tree, was a fountain. When the day was very hot the King’s daughter used to go into the wood and sit down by the side of the cool fountain. Her favorite amusement, as she sat there, was to toss a golden ball up into the air and catch it again. Once she threw it so high that, instead of falling into the hand that she stretched out for it, it dropped upon the ground and rolled straight into the water.
The King’s daughter followed it with her eyes as long as she could, but it disappeared, for the well was so deep that she could not see the bottom. Then she began to cry bitterly for her ball.
As she sat weeping she heard a voice calling: “What is the matter, King’s daughter? Your tears would touch the heart of a stone.”
She looked round towards the spot whence the voice came and saw a frog stretching his thick, ugly head out of the water.
“Oh, it is you, is it, old water-paddler!” she said. “Well, then, I am crying for the loss of my golden ball which has fallen into the fountain.”
“Then do not cry any more,” answered the frog; “I can get it for you. But what will you give me if I bring back your plaything to you?”
“Oh, anything you like, dear frog!” she said. “My dresses, my pearls and jewels, even the golden crown I wear.”
“No,” answered the frog, “your clothes, your pearls and jewels, or even your golden crown are nothing to me; but if you will love me and let me be your companion and playfellow, sit by you at table, eat from your little golden plate, drink out of your cup, and sleep in your little bed,—if you will promise me all this, then I will bring you back your golden ball from the bottom of the fountain.”
“Oh, yes,” she replied, “I promise you anything if you will only bring me back my ball!”
She was thinking to herself all this while: “What nonsense the silly frog does talk! He lives in the water with other frogs, and croaks, and cannot be anybody’s playfellow.”
But the frog, as soon as he had received the promise, ducked his head under the water and sank down to the bottom. In a little while he came up again with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the grass. The King’s daughter was full of joy when she saw her pretty plaything again, and, catching it up, ran off with it.
“Wait! wait!” cried the frog. “Take me with you; I cannot run as fast as you.”
But the young Princess would not listen to the frog’s croaking, but ran home and soon forgot the poor frog, who had to go back to his fountain again.
The next day, when the Princess was sitting at table with the King and his courtiers and eating out of her little golden plate, there came a sound of something creeping up the marble staircase, splish, splash, splish, splash, and presently there came a knock at the door, and a voice crying, “Youngest King’s daughter, open to me.”
She ran to see who was outside; but when she opened the door and saw the frog she shut it again in great haste and sat down at the table looking very much frightened. The King, seeing that his daughter was alarmed, said to her: “My child, what is the matter? Is there a giant outside at the door, wanting to carry you off?”
“Oh, no!” she replied; “it is no giant,—only a great ugly frog.”
“A frog! What can he want with you, my daughter?”
“Yesterday when I was playing with my golden ball by the fountain in the forest it fell into the water, and because I cried the frog brought it out for me, and he made me promise that he should come here and be my companion; but I never thought he could get out of the water to come. And now he is outside there, and wants to come in to me.”
Just then he knocked at the door a second time, and called:
“Youngest King’s daughter,
Open to me.
Do you not know
What you promised me,
Yesterday
Under the linden tree?
Youngest King’s daughter,
Open to me.”
Then the King said: “My daughter, what you have promised, you must do. Go and open the door for him.”
She went and opened the door, and the frog hopped after her, close to her feet, and quite up to her chair. There he sat and cried, “Lift me up beside you.”
She hesitated, till the King commanded her to do it.
When the frog was on the table he said, “Now push your little plate nearer to me, and we will eat together.”
She did it, but it was easy to see that she did not do it willingly. The frog seemed to enjoy his dinner very much, but every mouthful she ate choked her. At last he said, “I have eaten enough, and am tired; now carry me to your little room, and make your silken bed ready, that we may sleep together.”
The King’s daughter began to cry, for she was afraid of the cold frog. She did not like to touch him, and now he wanted to sleep in her beautiful, neat little bed.
But the King was displeased at her tears, and said, “He who helped you when you were in trouble must not be despised now.”
So she took up the frog with two fingers, carried him upstairs, and put him in a corner of her room.
When she got into bed he crept up to her and said: “I am tired, and I want to go to sleep too. Lift me up, or I will tell your father.”
Then she was very angry, and picked him up and threw him with all her strength against the wall, saying, “Now will you be quiet, you ugly frog?”
But as he fell, how surprised she was to see the frog change into a handsome young Prince with beautiful, friendly eyes! He told her how he had been bewitched by a wicked fairy, and how no one could have released him from the spell but herself. He now became, by her father’s will, her dear companion and her husband.
The young Prince wanted to take her to his own kingdom. So on the wedding day a splendid carriage drawn by eight white horses with white plumes on their heads and golden harness drove up to the door. Behind it stood the servant of the young Prince, the faithful Henry. This faithful Henry had been so unhappy when his master was changed into a frog that he had bound three iron bands round his heart to keep it from breaking with grief and sorrow.
The carriage with the Prince and his bride soon drove away, with Henry behind. They had only gone a little way when the Prince heard a loud crack behind him, as if something had broken. He turned round, and cried, “Henry, the carriage is breaking!”
“No, sir,” he replied, “it is not the carriage, but only the iron bands which I bound round my heart for fear it should break with sorrow while you were a frog confined in the fountain. They are breaking now because of my happiness.”
The Prince and Princess never forgot faithful Henry, who had loved his master so well while he was in trouble.