The Velveteen Rabbit & Other Stories - Margery Williams [5]
“Why, he looks just like my old Bunny that was lost when I had scarlet fever!”
But he never knew that it really was his own Bunny, come back to look at the child who had first helped him to be Real.
The Frog Prince
Once upon a time, there lived a king whose daughters were all beautiful, but the youngest was the most beautiful of all. On warm days, the youngest princess liked to sit by the side of a nearby well. When she was bored she would throw a golden ball, her favorite toy, up high and catch it.
One day, the princess’s ball rolled straight into the water. She looked inside, but the well was so deep that the bottom could not be seen. She began to cry until a voice said, “What ails you, Princess? You weep so that even a stone would show pity.”
The princess looked around and saw a frog stretching forth his big, ugly head from the water.
“I am weeping for my golden ball, which has fallen into the well,” she said.
“Do not weep,” answered the frog. “I can help you, but what will you give me if I bring your ball up again?”
“Whatever you want, dear frog,” said she, “my clothes, my pearls and jewels, and even the golden crown that I am wearing.”
The frog answered, “I do not want anything but for you to love me and let me be your friend, and let me sit by you at your little table, and eat off your little golden plate, and drink out of your little cup, and sleep in your little bed. If you will promise me this, I will bring your golden ball up again.”
“Oh, yes,” said she, “I promise you all you wish, if you will but bring me my ball back again.” But she thought, As if a silly frog could really be a person’s friend!
The frog dove into the water and retrieved the ball. The delighted princess picked it up and ran quickly away.
“Wait!” called the frog. “Take me with you. I can’t run as fast as you!” But the princess ran to the castle without looking back.
The next day, while she was dining with the king and all the courtiers, something crept splish-splash, splish-splash up the marble staircase, and then knocked at the door and cried, “Princess, open the door for me!” She ran to open the door, and there sat the ugly frog. Frightened, she slammed the door and sat down to dinner again. The king saw plainly that she was afraid and said to her, “Daughter, why are you so afraid? Is there perchance a giant outside who wants to carry you away?”
“It is no giant but a disgusting frog,” replied the princess. She explained what had happened at the well. In the meantime, the frog knocked a second time and called for her again.
The king said, “What you promised, you must do. Go and let him in.” She went and opened the door, and the frog hopped in and followed her, step by step, to her chair. And so the frog sat by her at the table, ate off her little golden plate, and drank out of her little cup. The frog enjoyed himself, but almost every spoonful the princess ate choked her. After dinner, he said, “Now I am tired. Carry me into your little room, and we will both lie down and go to sleep.”
The king’s daughter began to cry, for she was afraid of the cold frog and did not want him to sleep in her pretty, clean little bed. But the king grew angry and said, “He helped you when you were in trouble and should not be despised by you now.” So she took hold of the frog with two fingers, carried him into her room, and put him on her bed.
The frog said, “Now give me a goodnight kiss or I will tell your father.” The princess shut her eyes and kissed the frog on his clammy cheek. When she opened her eyes, he was no longer a frog but a king’s son, with kind and beautiful eyes. The prince told her how he had been bewitched by an evil fairy to live as a frog, and how no one could have delivered him from the well but herself. The next day, the prince and princess celebrated a joyful wedding and went together to rule his kingdom and live happily ever after.
Peter Pan
Late one night, Peter Pan and the fairy Tinker Bell flew across the London sky. They stopped at the window outside the nursery of the Darling house