Read The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm for Free Online Page B

promised!”
    But she didn’t pay any attention to him.
    The next day the princess sat at the table and heard something coming up the marble steps, splish, splash! splish, splash! Soon thereafter it knocked at the door and cried out: “Princess, youngest daughter, open up!”
    She ran to the door and opened it, and there was the frog whom she had forgotten. Horrified, she quickly slammed the door shut and sat down back at the table. But the king saw that her heart was thumping and said, “Why are you afraid?”
    â€œThere’s a nasty frog outside,” she replied. “He retrieved my golden ball from the water, and I promised him that he could be my companion. But I never believed at all he could get out of the water. Now he’s standing outside in front of the door and wants to come inside.”
    As she said this, there was a knock at the door, and the frog cried out:
    â€œPrincess, youngest daughter,
    Open up!
    Don’t you remember, what you said
    down by the well’s cool water?
    Princess, youngest daughter,
    Open up!”
    The king said: “You must keep your promise no matter what you said. Go and open the door for the frog.”
    She obeyed, and the frog hopped inside and followed her at her heels until they came to her chair, and when she sat down again, he cried out: “Lift me up to the chair beside you.”
    The princess didn’t want to do this, but the king ordered her to do it. When the frog was up at the table, he said: “Now push your little golden plate nearer to me so we can eat together.”
    The princess had to do this as well, and after he had eaten until he was full, he said: “Now I’m tired and want to sleep. Bring me upstairs to your little room. Get your little bed ready so that we can lie down in it.”
    The princess became terrified when she heard this, for she was afraid of the cold frog. She didn’t dare to touch him, and now he was to lie inher bed next to her. She began to weep and didn’t want to comply with his wishes at all. But the king became angry and ordered her to do what she had promised, or she’d be held in disgrace. Nothing helped. She had to do what her father wanted, but she was bitterly angry in her heart. So she picked up the frog with two fingers, carried him upstairs into her room, lay down in her bed, and instead of setting him down next to her, she threw him crash! against the wall. “Now you’ll leave me in peace, you nasty frog!”
    But the frog didn’t fall down dead. Instead, when he fell down on the bed, he became a handsome young prince. Well, now indeed he did become her dear companion, and she cherished him as she had promised, and in their delight they fell asleep together.
    The next morning a splendid coach arrived drawn by eight horses with feathers and glistening gold harnesses. The prince’s Faithful Henry accompanied them. He had been so distressed when he had learned his master had been turned into a frog that he had ordered three iron bands to be wrapped around his heart to keep it from bursting from grief. When the prince got into the coach with the princess, his faithful servant took his place at the back so they could return to the prince’s realm. And after they had traveled some distance, the prince heard a loud cracking noise behind him. So, he turned around and cried out: “Henry, the coach is breaking!”
    â€œNo, my lord, it’s really nothing
    but the band around my heart,
    which nearly came apart
    when you turned into a frog and your fortune fell
    and you were made to live in that dreadful well.”
    Two more times the prince heard the cracking noise and thought the coach was breaking, but the noise was only the sound of the bands springing from Faithful Henry’s heart because his master had been released from the spell and was happy.
    2
    THE COMPANIONSHIP OF THE CAT AND MOUSE
    A cat and a mouse wanted to live together, and so