A Grimm Collection

"Be kind to others, but remember that you are not entitled to their gratitude."

One day, the youngest daughter of an indulgent king decided to take a walk in the forest. When the sun was at its highest, she found a well by which to perch. She was tired from her journey and longed for refreshment, but the well was deep and dingy and had no rope or bucket to collect water. In despair, she threw herself to the ground and bawled. She was not used to want, especially unmet want, and her thirst clawed at her throat like an impatient cat.

A passing frog halted when he heard the princess wailing. He was hesitant to offer help to a human - all animals were-, but she was so slight and her cries were so piercing that he was moved to action.

“Be of ease, sweet girl,” the frog said as he hopped over to the princess. “Whatever is the matter?”

The princess blinked at the frog. It was a monstrous thing, bulbous and grotesque and repellent. Its voice was hoarse and its words garbled, as if its tongue was an oversized ball. It seemed to be waiting on a reply to some query or other, but she had no idea what it had said.

“Come now,” it said when she made no reply. “Do not be afraid. Tell me what the matter is and I will endeavour to help.”

“I am thirsty,” the princess said.

“Then the solution is simple,” the frog said and gestured to the well. “I will fetch water from the well for you.”

“How will you get down? And back up again?” the princess asked.

The frog showed her his legs. “I am an able jumper.”

She considered this for a moment. “But I don’t have a cup to hold the water. How will you bring it to me?”

This conundrum required a moment’s thought. Finally, the frog said, “I shall carry it in my mouth.”

The princess did not like the thought of the frog’s slimy, slippery, sour lips touching hers, but she said nothing lest he change his mind about helping her.

Rescinding his offer was nowhere on the frog’s mind, however. He looked at the princess with kind eyes and said, “I shall be but a moment, sweet girl,” and jumped down into the well with a plop.

The princess waited impatiently for the frog to reappear with her water.

It took him a minute or so to recover from the mighty jump, but he soon scooped up a mouthful of water and launched himself back up the well. He brushed the rim of the well with his fingertips, but could not find a handhold. With an unpleasant lurch, he fell back into the water at the well’s bottom with a plop.

The princess looked down at him. “I am awfully thirsty,” she said.

“It seems I am stuck,” the frog replied. “If you reach down, I can grasp your fingers and pull myself up the rest of the way.”

On the second jump, he managed to grab a hold of the princess’s hand and she helped to lift him out of the well. Her hold transformed as he balanced there, quite suddenly and quite unpleasantly, into the suffocating clasp of a heron.

She brought the frog’s mouth close to her own, parted her lips and waited for it to share the sweet water it had collected from the well. When the water eventually came, it was not sweet and the solitary mouthful did nothing to ease the pain in her throat.

Angrily, she tossed the frog to the floor and stomped on him with her little slipper. Then she did it again. And again. And again.