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‘No,’ said the parrot. ‘There was no moon, it was raining all night.’
‘It is impossible! This bird tells lies! What shall we do?’ the people said. ‘Fly away! You can’t live with us!’
So the parrot flew away unhappily into the forest where he met a mocking-bird[33] and told him his story.
‘Why did you not repeat words as I do?’ asked the mocking-bird. ‘Men always think their words are clever.’
‘But the man told lies and he was not intelligent,’ said the parrot.
‘That is nothing,’ answered the mocking-bird. ‘Say what they say, and they will think you are a wonderful and polite bird.’
‘Yes, I see,’ said the parrot, ‘from now on, I will only repeat their words.’
The Frog Prince
One fine evening a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs, and went out to take a walk by herself in a wood; and when she came to a cool spring of water with a rose in the middle of it, she sat down to rest a while. Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her favorite toy; and she was always playing with it.
After a time she threw it up so high that she missed catching it as it fell; and the ball rolled along on the ground, until it fell down into the spring. The princess looked into the spring, but it was very deep, so deep that she could not see the bottom of it. She began to cry, and said, ‘If I could only get my ball again, I would give all my fine clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the world.’
While she was speaking, a frog put its head out of the water, and said, ‘Princess, why do you cry?’
‘Oh!’ said she, ‘what can you do for me, you nasty frog? My golden ball has fallen into the spring.’
The frog said, ‘I do not want your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes; but if you will love me, and let me live with you and eat from your golden plate, and sleep on your bed, I will bring you your ball again.’
‘What nonsense,’ thought the princess, ‘this silly frog is talking! He can never even get out[34] of the spring to visit me, though he may be able to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him he shall have what he asks.’
So she said to the frog, ‘Well, if you will bring me my ball, I will do all you ask.’
Then the frog put his head down, and dived deep under the water; and after a little while he came up again, with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the edge of the spring.
As soon as the young princess saw her ball, she ran to pick it up; and she was so happy to have it in her hand again, that she never thought of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could.
The frog called after her, ‘Stay, princess, and take me with you as you promised,’
But she did not stop.
The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a strange noise – tap, tap – plash, plash – as if something was coming up the marble staircase, and soon afterwards there was a knock at the door, and a little voice cried out and said:
‘Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to your true love here!
And mind the words that you and I said
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.’
Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw the frog, whom she had forgotten. She shut the door as fast as she could and came back to her seat.
The king, her father, saw that something had frightened her and asked her what the matter was.
‘There is a nasty frog,’ said she, ‘at the door, that lifted my ball for me out of the spring this morning. I told him that he should live with me here, thinking that he could never get out of the spring; but there he is at the door, and he wants to come in.’
While she was speaking the frog knocked again at the door, and said:
‘Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to your true love here!
And mind the words that you and I said
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.’
Then the king said to the young princess, ‘As you have given your word you must keep it; so go and let him in.’
She opened the door, and the frog hopped into the room, and then straight on – tap, tap – plash, plash – from the bottom of the room to the top, till he came up close to the table where the princess sat.
‘Give me a chair,’ said he 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 it.’
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 in her hand, 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 will not be bothered by him.’
But she was mistaken; for when night came again she heard the same tapping at the door; and the frog came once more, and said:
‘Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to your true love here!
And mind the words that you and I said
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.’
And when the princess opened the door the frog came in, and slept on her pillow. And the third night he did the same. But when the princess awoke on the following morning she was astonished[35] to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.
He told her that he had been enchanted[36] by a witch, who had changed him into a frog; and that he had been fated[37] to be a frog till some princess should take him out of the spring, and let him eat from her plate, and sleep on 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.’
Then they went together to the prince’s kingdom and there they lived happily ever after.
The Wind and the Sun
The Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveller coming down the road, and the Sun said, ‘I see a way to decide our dispute.[38] Whichever of us can cause that traveller to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger. You begin.’ So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveller. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveller wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveller, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on.
The Old Witch
Once upon a time there were two girls who lived with their mother and father.
Their father had no work, and the girls wanted to go away and seek their fortunes.
Now one girl wanted to go to service, and her mother said she might if she could find a place.
Well, she went all about the town, but no one wanted a girl like her.
So she went on farther into the country, and she came to the place where there was an oven where there was lots of bread baking.
And the bread said, ‘Little girl, little girl, take us out, take us out.
We have been baking seven years, and no one has come to take us out.’
So the girl took out the bread, laid it on the ground and went on her way.
Then she met a cow, and the cow said, ‘Little girl, little girl, milk me, milk me! Seven years have I been waiting, and no one has come to milk me.’
The girl milked the cow into the pails that stood by.
As she was thirsty she drank some, and left the rest in the pails by the cow.
Then she went on a little farther, and came to an apple-tree, so loaded with fruit that its branches were breaking down, and the tree said, ‘Little girl, little girl, help me shake my fruit. My branches are breaking, it is so heavy.’
And the girl said, ‘Of course I will, you poor tree.’
So she shook the fruit all off, propped up the branches, and left the fruit on the ground under the tree.
Then she went on again till she came to a house.
Now in this house there lived a witch, and this witch took girls into her house as servants.
And when she heard that this girl had left her home to seek service, she said that she would try her, and give her good wages. The witch told the girl what work she was to do.
‘You must keep the house clean and tidy, sweep the floor and the fireplace; but there is one thing you must never do. You must never look up the chimney, or something bad will befall you.’
So the girl promised to do as she was told, but one morning as she was cleaning, and the witch was out, she forgot what the witch said, and looked up the chimney.
When she did this a great bag of money fell down in her lap.[39]
This happened again and again.
So the girl started to go off home.[40] When she had gone some way she heard the witch coming after her.
So she ran to the apple-tree and cried:
‘Apple-tree, apple-tree, hide me,
So the old witch can’t find me;
If she does she’ll pick my bones,
And bury me under the marble stones.’
So the apple-tree hid her.
When the witch came up she said:
‘Tree of mine, tree of mine,
Have you seen a girl
With a willy-willy wag, and a long-tailed bag,
Who’s stole my money, all I had?’
And the apple-tree said, ‘No, mother; not for seven years.’
When the witch had gone down another way, the girl went on again, and just as she got to the cow heard the witch coming after her again, so she ran to the cow and cried:
‘Cow, cow, hide me,
So the old witch can’t find me;
If she does she’ll pick my bones,
And bury me under the marble stones.’
So the cow hid her. When the old witch came up, she looked about and said to the cow:
‘Cow of mine, cow of mine,
Have you seen a girl
With a willy-willy wag, and a long-tailed bag,
Who’s stole my money, all I had?’
And the cow said, ‘No, mother, not for seven years.’
When the witch had gone off another way, the little girl went on again, and when she was near the oven she heard the witch coming after her again, so she ran to the oven and cried:
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