Part 20 (1/2)
”Very well, then, we'll see.”
The old man looked up into the tree and called:
”Come down, Little Singing Frog! A Prince wants to marry you!”
So the little frog girl hopped down from among the branches and stood before the Prince.
”She's my own daughter,” the laborer said, ”even if she does look like a frog.”
”I don't care what she looks like,” the Prince said. ”I love her singing and I love her. And I mean what I say: I'll marry her if she'll marry me. My father, the Tsar, bids me and my brothers present him our brides to-morrow. He bids all the brides bring him a flower and he says he'll give the kingdom to the prince whose bride brings the loveliest flower. Little Singing Frog, will you be my bride and will you come to Court to-morrow bringing a flower?”
”Yes, my Prince,” the frog girl said, ”I will. But I must not shame you by hopping to Court in the dust. I must ride. So, will you send me a snow-white c.o.c.k from your father's barnyard?”
”I will,” the Prince promised, and before night the snow-white c.o.c.k had arrived at the laborer's cottage.
Early the next morning the frog girl prayed to the Sun.
”O golden Sun,” she said, ”I need your help! Give me some lovely clothes woven of your golden rays for I would not shame my Prince when I go to Court.”
The Sun heard her prayer and gave her a gown of cloth of gold.
Instead of a flower she took a spear of wheat in her hand and then when the time came she mounted the white c.o.c.k and rode to the palace.
[Ill.u.s.tration: _This, the Bride of the Youngest Prince, Is My Choice_]
The guards at the palace gate at first refused to admit her.
”This is no place for frogs!” they said to her. ”You're looking for a pond!”
But when she told them she was the Youngest Prince's bride, they were afraid to drive her away. So they let her ride through the gate.
”Strange!” they murmured to one another. ”The Youngest Prince's bride!
She looks like a frog and that was certainly a c.o.c.k she was riding, wasn't it?”
They stepped inside the gates to look after her and then they saw an amazing sight. The frog girl, still seated on the white c.o.c.k, was shaking out the folds of a golden gown. She dropped the gown over her head and instantly there was no frog and no white c.o.c.k but a lovely maiden mounted on a snow-white horse!
Well, the frog girl entered the palace with two other girls, the promised brides of the older princes. They were just ordinary girls both of them. To see them you wouldn't have paid any attention to them one way or the other. But standing beside the lovely bride of the Youngest Prince they seemed more ordinary than ever.
The first girl had a rose in her hand. The Tsar looked at it and at her, sniffed his nose slightly, and turned his head.
The second girl had a carnation. The Tsar looked at her for a moment and murmured:
”Dear me, this will never do!”
Then he looked at the Youngest Prince's bride and his eye kindled and he said: