Part 26 (2/2)
Look, kid. I'm just telling this story. I don't have all the answers. You gotta figure it out yourself.
”Um,” said a voice. ”Excuse me, but did that frog just talk?”
Jack and Jill and the frog all spun around. Elsie and her little sister stood at the edge of their clearing, staring at them.
”Oh, boy . . .” muttered the frog.
”Well . . .” said Jack, ”yes.”
”How?” said Elsie.
”Can I see?” asked her sister.
Jack looked at Jill. Jill looked at the frog. The frog shrugged.
”Come over here,” Jill said. She patted a spot on the log beside her. ”Meet our friend Frog. He can talk.”
”h.e.l.lo,” said the frog.
”Hi,” said both redheaded girls at once.
”You're amazing . . .” said Elsie's little sister.
The frog beamed.
”How do you talk?” Elsie asked.
”It's a long story,” said the frog.
And both little girls, at the very same moment, said, ”Okay.”
The frog sighed.
The sun was setting, and the sky was red and yellow and pink and blue as the frog finished his story.
”That was wonderful . . .” Elsie said with a sigh.
”Can you tell it again?” asked Elsie's little sister.
Jack and Jill laughed.
”I mean, tomorrow,” the little girl said. ”I want to bring my friends.”
The smiles slid off of Jack's and Jill's faces.
”Yeah,” said Elsie. ”All the kids will want to meet the frog now!”
”And hear the story!” her sister agreed.
Jack and Jill both looked at the frog. ”What do you think?” said Jill.
The frog turned his head coyly to one side. ”They'll all want to meet me?” he asked.
”Oh, yes!”
”And hear the story?”
”Definitely!”
”Well,” the frog replied. ”If you insist.”
The next afternoon, all the children who had ever come to clearing to play with Jack and Jill were gathered before the hollow log. The frog sat between Jack and Jill. And once the children had gotten over their hysterical excitement about meeting a talking frog, he told them all his story.
He finished when the sky was dark, and the stars were twinkling overhead.
The children all instantly clamored for more: ”What happened next? How did you meet Jack and Jill? Can we meet the salamanders?”
”No,” the frog replied, ”you cannot meet the salamanders. And as for how I met Jack and Jill? That's another very long story.”
And all the children, all at once, said, ”Okay.”
Jack and Jill laughed. And then Jill said, ”Why don't we tell you tomorrow?”
The next day, an even larger group of children had a.s.sembled. Even some boys from Jack's village were there. Not Marie, of course. But some of the quieter ones.
Jill told them all about her mother and the silk merchant and the terrible royal procession.
The children adored it. They ate up every word. A little boy in the back named Hans Christian laughed and gaped and clapped his hands straight the way through.
The day after, Jack told them about having to sell Milky and about the snake oil salesman. The boys from Jack's village laughed when Jack sang the Little Lamb song, and told the other children that it was all true-that there really was a rickety old cart, and Jack did trade his cow for a bean. And then Jack and Jill and the frog told them about the creepy old lady with the pale eyes and the beanstalk. The children were mesmerized. Especially a little boy sitting in the front named Joseph, but whom everyone called J.J.
After the story, as the stars were spinning in the dark sky, Elsie and her little sister pulled some of the boys from the village aside.
”Don't you think Jack's father misses him?” Elsie asked.
”He does,” one of the boys replied. ”He's in mourning.”
”I bet Jill's mother misses her, too,” said Elsie's little sister.
<script>