🥀 English Stories 📚
🦋 Story no. 157 🦋
The Princess and the Golden Ball
Part 2
The golden ball went so high up into the air that it really did begin to look like a sun, and the reflections dazzled the princess who had to close her eyes. The ball landed some way away and began to roll towards the lake in the shadows of the giant Nakla trees.
The princess let out a cry and ran towards the golden ball with her arms outstretched. But she was too late. The ball rolled into the lake and sank beneath the surface out of sight. The princess collapsed onto the ground and began to cry. She cried to hard that her tears fell into the lake making a sound like raindrops. Little ripples stretched across the surface of the lake and still the princess cried and cried.
Then a small voice came out of nowhere. ‘Why are you crying, princess?’ The princess looked all around but she could not see a single person near the lake. Again the small voice asked, ‘why are you crying, my princess?’
When she looked down she saw a small frog sitting on the edge of the lake with wide eyes and little webbed feet.
‘I have lost my golden ball and now I will never get it back.’
‘Where have you lost it, princess?’ said the little frog. ‘I can help you find it if it will stop your tears.’
The princess wiped her tears away. Perhaps this little frog can help me, she thought.
‘It is at the bottom of the lake where I cannot reach.’
The little frog looked at the princess and smiled. ‘I can fetch it for you, princess. I will dive to the bottom of the lake and I will bring back your golden ball for you.’
The princess was delighted by the news and also smiled, but before the frog jumped into the water he wanted the princess to make him a promise.
‘I will promise you anything if you will bring me back my golden ball,’ said the princess.
‘I want you to take me with you back to the palace and be my friend. If you promise to do this then I will dive to the bottom of the lake and find your golden ball.’
The princess agreed right away and so the little frog jumped into the lake and swam all the way to the bottom where he took the golden ball in his mouth. The ball was very heavy and the little frog struggled to get back to the surface. Eventually he appeared on the edge of the lake and dropped the ball onto the grass at the princesses’ feet.
The princess took the ball and held it to her chest and laughed with glee. Then she ran towards the palace, leaving the frog behind.
‘Wait for me,’ cried the little frog. ‘You promised to take me with you!’
But the princess ignored the frog, forgetting all about her promise. All she could think about was how happy she was that she had her golden ball. And she knew it would be dinner time at the palace and she was hungry. The princess only ever thought about herself and the poor frog was left alone on the edge of the lake.
Later that evening the princess and the king were sitting down to dinner in the palace. The princess did not spare a thought for the frog, or for the promise she had made him.
Then there was a knock at the palace door. A moment later the frog hopped into the dining hall and jumped up on to the table next to the princess. The princess was horrified and cried out, ‘go away you disgusting frog!’ But the king silenced his daughter and asked the frog what he was doing inside the palace. The frog told the kind all about the promise the princess had made to him. The king was very angry with his daughter and commanded her to keep her promise to the frog.
‘We must always do as we promise, daughter.’
‘But he is just a frog and I am a princess,’ she said, almost in tears once again.
‘That does not matter. You must do as you said you would do.’
The king made the princess serve the frog a small plate of food which the little frog hungrily gobbled down.
The princess was angry at her father and even angrier at the frog. She thought it wrong that a frog should be inside the palace, eating at her table with the king. But the king paid no attention to his daughter’s foul mood.
@engstory23 📖🖊
