THE FROG-PRINCE.
In times of yore, when wishes were both heard and granted, lived a
king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was so
lovely that the sun himself, who has seen so much, wondered at her
beauty every time he looked in her face. Now, near the king's castle
was a large dark forest; and in the forest, under an old linden-tree,
was a deep well. When the day was very hot, the king's daughter used
to go to the wood and seat herself at the edge of the cool well; and
when she became wearied, she would take a golden ball, throw it up in
the air, and catch it again. This was her favourite amusement. Once it
happened that her golden ball, instead of falling back into the little
hand that she stretched out for it, dropped on the ground, and
immediately rolled away into the water. The king's daughter followed
it with her eyes, but the ball had vanished, and the well was so deep
that no one could see down to the bottom. Then she began to weep, wept
louder and louder every minute, and could not console herself at all.
While she was thus lamenting some one called to her: "What is the
matter with you, king's daughter? You weep so, that you would touch
the heart of a stone."
She looked around to see whence the voice came, and saw a frog
stretching his thick ugly head out of the water.
"Ah! it is you, old water-paddler!" said she.
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