Frog Prince
taught by
Emily and
Tate
(USA), illustrated by Katerina, Nadya R. (Russia), Dora (Croatia)
and
Michal Anna
(USA)
One fine evening a Princess went on a walk in the woods. She sat down by a well and played catch with her favorite golden ball. When she was not looking she missed her ball and it fell in to the well. She started to weep when she heard a tiny voice in the well. It was a frog! He asked the Princess what was wrong. She said that she had dropped her ball in the well! The frog said that he would get the golden ball for her, if she would take him home with her.
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The king's daughter thought, what is the silly frog talking about, he will surely have to remain in the water, but perhaps he can get me my ball back, and so I'll just say yes. And she said: " Well , all right then, just get me my golden ball back and I'll promise you everything." The frog plunged under the water, retrieved her ball, and threw it onto land. The king's daughter grabbed it and ran away, ignoring the frog's calls to take him with her as she had promised.
When she got home she forgot all about her promise to the frog. The next day, she had just sat down for dinner when she heard something coming up the staircase, pitch, patch! Pitch, patch! Soon there was a knock on the door, and a voice cried "King's daughter, open up for me!" She ran to open the door; but seeing that it was the frog, slammed it again and returned to the table. Meanwhile, there was another knock and a cry: "King's daughter, open up for me, don't you know what you promised yesterday? Then the Princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw the frog, whom she had quite forgotten about. At this sight she was sadly frightened, and shutting the door fast as she 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,' she said, 'at the door, that lifted my ball for me out of the spring this morning: I told him that he should live here with me, thinking that he could never get out of the spring; but there he is at the door, and he wants to come in.' Then the king said to the 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, till he came up close to the table where the Princess sat. ' Lift me upon chair,' he said 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.'
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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 to her room, 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 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 fairy, who had changed him into a frog; and that he had been enchanted to be a frog until some Princess 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 Princess was not wanting to say yes to all this, but as they spoke, a brightly colored coach drove up, with eight beautiful horses, decked with tons of feathers and a golden harness, and behind the coach rode the Prince's servant, faithful Henry. They then left 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 ever after.
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