‘Oh no!’ she said: ‘it’s not a giant, but a hideous Frog.’
‘What does the Frog want with you?’
‘Oh, father dear, last night, when I was playing by the well in the forest, my golden ball fell into the water. And I cried, and the Frog got it out for me; and then, because he insisted on it, I promised that he should be my playmate. But I never thought that he would come out of the water, but there he is, and he wants to come in to me.’
He knocked at the door for the second time, and sang—
Take me up, I sing;
Know’st thou not what yesterday
Thou to me didst say
By the well in forest dell.
Youngest daughter of the King,
Take me up, I sing.’
Then said the King, ‘What you have promised you must perform. Go and open the door for him.’
So she opened the door, and the Frog shuffled in, keeping close to her feet, till he reached her chair. Then he cried, ‘Lift me up beside you.’ She hesitated, till the King ordered her to do it. When the Frog was put on the chair, he demanded to be placed upon the table, and then he said, ‘Push your golden plate nearer that we may eat together.’ She did as he asked her, but very unwillingly, as could easily be seen. The Frog made a good dinner, but the Princess could not swallow a morsel. At last he said, ‘I have eaten enough, and I am tired, carry me into your bedroom and arrange your silken bed, that we may go to sleep.’
The Princess began to cry, for she was afraid of the clammy Frog, which she did not dare to touch, and which was now to sleep in her pretty little silken bed. But the King grew very angry, and said, ‘You must not despise any one who has helped you in your need.’
So she seized him with two fingers, and carried him upstairs, where she put him in a corner of her room. When she got into
