Grimm's Fairy Tales [antikvár]

1. The Frog-Prince In the good old times, when wishes often came true, there lived a King whose daughters were all beau tiful, but the youngest was so beautiftil that the sun himself, who had seen so much beauty, wondered at her every time he kissed her face. Close to the King's castle was a dark forest , and in the forest under an old lime tree was a well; here on warm days the royal child used to come and sit on the bank by the cool water. When she was bored she took a golden ball, threw it in the air and caught it again, and that was her favorite amusement. It happened once that the Princess's golden ball, instead of falling into the little hands she held out to catch it, rolled along the ground into the water. The child followed the ball with her eyes, but it disappeared, and the well was deep, so deep that you couldn't see the bottom. Then she began to cry, and cried louder and louder, as if nothing could comfort her; and as she wailed someone called out, "Why, Princess, what's the matter? You cry loudly enough to move a stone to pity. " She looked round to see where the voice came from, and beheld a frog poking his fat, ugly head out of the water. "Ah! is it you, old water-splasher?" she said. "I am crying because my golden ball has fallen into the well. " "Well, don't cry any more,"answered the frog. "I can help you. What will you give me if I fetch your toy