Читать книгу The Best English Fairy Tales / Лучшие английские сказки - Группа авторов - Страница 3

Once upon a time, there was a girl whose mother had died, and her father married again. Her stepmother hated her because she was more beautiful than herself, and she was very cruel to her. She used to make her do all the servant’s work. At last, one day, the stepmother thought to get rid of her[9]. So she gave her a sieve and said to her: “Go, fill it at the Well of the World’s End and bring it home to me full.”

She thought the girl would not find the Well of the World’ s End. And if she did, how could she bring home a sieve full of water?

Well, the girl started her journey. She asked everyone she met to tell her where the Well of the World’s End was. But nobody knew, and she didn’t know what to do. One day a little old woman told her where it was. Finally she reached the Well of the World’s End. But when she dipped the sieve in the cold, cold water, it all ran out again. She tried and tried again. She sat down and cried as if her heart could break.

Suddenly she heard a croaking voice, and she looked up. She saw a great frog with large eyes looking at her and speaking to her.

“What’s the matter, girl?” it said.

“Oh, dear, oh dear,” she said, “my stepmother has sent me all this long way to fill this sieve with water from the Well of the World’s End, and I can’t fill it.”

“Well,” said the frog, “do whatever I ask you for a whole night long, I’ll tell you how to fill it.”

So the girl agreed, and the frog said:

“Stop it with moss and put some clay, And then it will carry the water away”; and then it jumped into the Well of the World’s End.

So the girl found some moss, and she put some clay. Then she dipped it once again into the Well of the World’s End. This time, the water didn’t run out, and she turned to go away.

Just then the frog popped up its head out of the Well of the World’s End, and said: “Remember your promise.”

“All right,” said the girl, “What can a frog do to me?”

So she went back to her stepmother, and brought the sieve full of water from the Well of the World’s End. The stepmother was angry, but she said nothing at all.

That very evening they heard something tap-tapping at the door low down, and a voice cried out:

“What is it?” cried out the stepmother, and the girl told her everything, and what she had promised the frog.

“Girls must keep their promises[10],” said the stepmother. “Go and open the door!” She was glad the girl would serve a nasty frog.

So the girl went and opened the door, and there was the frog from the Well of the World’s End. And it jumped and reached the girl, and then it said:

But the girl didn’t like to do it. Her stepmother said: “Lift it up! Girls must keep their promises!”

So finally she lifted the frog up on to her lap, and it lay there for a time. At last it said:

Well, she didn’t mind doing that, so she got it a bowl of milk and bread. She fed the frog well. And when the frog finished, it said:

But that the girl didn’t want to do that. But her stepmother said: “Do what you promised, girl! Girls must keep their promises.”

So the girl took the frog with her to bed, and kept it as far away from her as she could. In the morning, the frog said:

At first the girl wouldn’t do that. She felt sorry for the frog. It helped her at the Well of the World’s End and was not a bad frog at all. But when the frog said the words over again she went and took an axe and chopped off its head, and oh! there stood before her a young prince. He told her his story. He had been enchanted by a wicked magician, and he could never be unspelled till some girl would do what he asked for a whole night, and chop off his head at the end of it.

The stepmother was surprised when she found the young prince instead of the ugly frog. And she wasn’t best pleased, when the prince told her that he was going to marry her stepdaughter. They got married, went to live in the castle of the king, his father.