Rumpelstiltskin 1/3

Once there was a miller who was poor, but who had a beautiful daughter. Now it happened that he had to go and speak to the king, and in order to make himself appear important he said to him, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold."
The king said to the miller, "That is an art which pleases me well, if your daughter is as clever as you say, bring her to-morrow to my palace, and I will put her to the test."
And when the girl was brought to him he took her into a room which was quite full of straw, gave her a spinning-wheel and a reel, and said, "Now set to work, and if by to-morrow morning early you have not spun this straw into gold during the night, you must die."
Thereupon he himself locked up the room, and left her in it alone. So there sat the poor miller's daughter, and for the life of her could not tell what to do, she had no idea how straw could be spun into gold, and she grew more and more frightened, until at last she began to weep.
But all at once the door opened, and in came a little man, and said, "Good evening, mistress miller, why are you crying so?"
"Alas," answered the girl, "I have to spin straw into gold, and I do not know how to do it."
"What will you give me," said the manikin, "if I do it for you?"
"My necklace," said the girl.
The little man took the necklace, seated himself in front of the wheel, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three turns, and the reel was full, then he put another on, and whirr, whirr, whirr, three times round, and the second was full too. And so it went on until the morning, when all the straw was spun, and all the reels were full of gold.
By daybreak the king was already there, and when he saw the gold he was stonished and delighted, but his heart became only more greedy. He had the miller's daughter taken into another room full of straw, which was much larger, and commanded her to spin that also in one night if she valued her life. The girl knew not how to help herself, and was crying, when the door opened again, and the little man appeared, and said, "What will you give me if I spin that straw into gold for you?"

"DEAR MR. HOLMES:—I am very anxious to consult you as to whether I should or should not accept a situation which has been offered to me as governess. I shall call at half-past ten to-morrow if I do not inconvenience you. Yours faithfully, VIOLET HUNTER."

"Do you know the young lady?" I asked.
"Not I."
"It is half-past ten now."
"Yes, and I have no doubt that is her ring."
"It may turn out to be of more interest than you think. You remember that the affair of the blue carbuncle, which appeared to be a mere whim at first, developed into a serious investigation. It may be so in this case, also."
"Well, let us hope so. But our doubts will very soon be solved, for here, unless I am much mistaken, is the person in question."

"Pshaw, my dear fellow, what do the public, the great unobservant public, who could hardly tell a weaver by his tooth or a compositor by his left thumb, care about the finer shades of analysis and deduction! But, indeed, if you are trivial. I cannot blame you, for the days of the great cases are past. Man, or at least criminal man, has lost all enterprise and originality. As to my own little practice, it seems to be degenerating into an agency for recovering lost lead pencils and giving advice to young ladies from boarding-schools. I think that I have touched bottom at last, however. This note I had this morning marks my zero-point, I fancy. Read it!" He tossed a crumpled letter across to me. It was dated from Montague Place upon the preceding evening, and ran thus:

It was a cold morning of the early spring, and we sat after breakfast on either side of a cheery fire in the old room at Baker Street. A thick fog rolled down between the lines of dun-colored houses, and the opposing windows loomed like dark, shapeless blurs through the heavy yellow wreaths. Our gas was lit and shone on the white cloth and glimmer of china and metal, for the table had not been cleared yet. Sherlock Holmes had been silent all the morning, dipping continuously into the advertisement columns of a succession of papers until at last, having apparently given up his search, he had emerged in no very sweet temper to lecture me upon my literary shortcomings.
"At the same time," he remarked after a pause, during which he had sat puffing at his long pipe and gazing down into the fire, "You can hardly be open to a charge of sensationalism, for out of these cases which you have been so kind as to interest yourself in, a fair proportion do not treat of crime, in its legal sense, at all. The small matter in which I endeavored to help the King of Bohemia, the singular experience of Miss Mary Sutherland, the problem connected with the man with the twisted lip, and the incident of the noble bachelor, were all matters which are outside the pale of the law. But in avoiding the sensational, I fear that you may have bordered on the trivial."
"The end may have been so," I answered, "but the methods I hold to have been novel and of interest."

"It seems to me that I have done you full justice in the matter," I remarked with some coldness, for I was repelled by the egotism which I had more than once observed to be a strong factor in my friend's singular character.
"No, it is not selfishness or conceit," said he, answering, as was his wont, my thoughts rather than my words. "If I claim full justice for my art, it is because it is an impersonal thing—a thing beyond myself. Crime is common. Logic is rare. Therefore it is upon the logic rather than upon the crime that you should dwell. You have degraded what should have been a course of lectures into a series of tales."

Yesterday,i went to skul for basketball training.Unluckily it was rainy day.my fren n I was very sad,n then teacher call us to train stamina.At first we all very tired but after trained about 15 minutes,we can slowly getting faster n better.At last, teacher teach

us the technich to fight in 5 on 5.We learned many things from him(teacher Saw)

we also very happy. ^_^ *_* >_< =_=' $_$

THE COPPER BEECHES

"To the man who loves art for its own sake," remarked Sherlock Holmes, tossing aside the advertisement sheet of the Daily Telegraph, "It is frequently in its least important and lowliest manifestations that the keenest pleasure is to be derived. It is pleasant to me to observe, Watson, that you have so far grasped this truth that in these little records of our cases which you have been good enough to draw up, and, I am bound to say, occasionally to embellish, you have given prominence not so much to the many causes celebres and sensational trials in which I have figured but rather to those incidents which may have been trivial in themselves, but which have given room for those faculties of deduction and of logical synthesis which I have made my special province."
"And yet," said I, smiling, "I cannot quite hold myself absolved from the charge of sensationalism which has been urged against my records."
"You have erred, perhaps," he observed, taking up a glowing cinder with the tongs and lighting with it the long cherry-wood pipe which was wont to replace his clay when he was in a disputatious rather than a meditative mood—"You have erred perhaps in attempting to put color and life into each of your statements instead of confining yourself to the task of placing upon record that severe reasoning from cause to effect which is really the only notable feature about the thing."

It was a windy day.
The mailman barely made it to the front door. When the door opened, Mrs. Pennington said, "hello", but, before she had a real chance to say "thank you", the mail blew out of the mailman's hands, into the house and the front door slammed in his face. Mrs. Pennington ran to pick up the mail.
"Oh my," she said.
Tommy was watching the shutters open and then shut, open and then shut.
"Mom," he said, "may I go outside?"
"Be careful," she said. "It's so windy today."
Tommy crawled down from the window-seat and ran to the door. He opened it with a bang. The wind blew fiercely and snatched the newly recovered mail from Mrs. Pennington's hands and blew it even further into the house.
"Oh my," she said again. Tommy ran outside and the door slammed shut.
Outside, yellow, gold, and red leaves were leaping from swaying trees, landing on the roof, jumping off the roof, and then chasing one another down the street in tiny whirlwinds of merriment.
Tommy watched in fascination.
"If I was a leaf, I would fly clear across the world," Tommy thought and then ran out into the yard among the swirl of colors.
Mrs. Pennington came to the front porch.
"Tommy, I have your jacket. Please put it on."
However, there was no Tommy in the front yard.
"Tommy?"
Tommy was a leaf. He was blowing down the street with the rest of his play-mates.
A maple leaf came close-by, touched him and moved ahead. Tommy met him shortly, brushed against him, and moved further ahead. They swirled around and around, hit cars and poles, flew up into the air and then down again.
"This is fun," Tommy thought.
The maple leaf blew in front of him. It was bright red with well-defined veins. The sun-light shone through it giving it a brilliance never before seen by a little boy's eyes.
"Where do you think we are going?" Tommy asked the leaf.
"Does it matter?" the leaf replied. "Have fun. Life is short."
"I beg to differ," an older leaf said suddenly coming beside them. "The journey may be short, but the end is the beginning."
Tommy pondered this the best a leaf could ponder.
"Where do we end up?"
"If the wind blows you in that direction," the old leaf said, "you will end up in the city dump." "I don't want that," Tommy said.
"If you are blown in that direction, you will fly high into the air and see things that no leaf has seen before."
"Follow me to the city dump," the maple leaf said. "Most of my friends are there."
The wind blew Tommy and the maple leaf along. Tommy thought of his choices. He wanted to continue to play.
"Okay," Tommy said, "I will go with you to the dump."
The winds shifted and Tommy and the leaf were blown in the direction of the city dump.
The old leaf didn't follow. He was blown further down the block and suddenly lifted up high into the air.
"Hey," he called out, "the sights up here. They are spectacular. Come and see."
Tommy and the maple leaf ignored him.
"I see something. I see the dump." The old leaf cried out. "I see smoke. Come up here. I see fire."
"I see nothing," the maple leaf said.
Tommy saw the fence that surrounded the city dump. He was happy to be with his friend. They would have fun in the dump.
Suddenly, a car pulled up. It was Tommy's mom. Mrs. Pennington wasn't about to let her little boy run into the city dump.
"Not so fast," she said getting out of the car. "You are not allowed to play in there. Don't you see the smoke?"
Tommy watched the maple leaf blow against the wall and struggle to get over. He ran over to get it but was unable to reach it.
Mrs. Pennington walked over and took the leaf. She put it in her pocket.
"There," she said, "it will be safe until we get home."
Tommy smiled, ran to the car and got in. He rolled down the back window and looked up into the sky. He wondered where the old leaf had gone. Perhaps one day he would see what the old leaf had seen - perhaps.

THE GREAT RACE

A LONG TIME AGO IN CHINA LIVED JADE EMPEROR. IT WAS HIS BIRTHDAY. HE WANTED TO MEASURE TIME TO KNOW HOW OLD HE WAS.

ALL ANIMALS ARRIVED. THE EMPEROR DECIDED TO HAVE A RACE TO GIVE A NAME TO EACH YEAR OF THE CHINESE ZONIAC.

THE RAT AND THE CAT COULDN'T SWIM VERY WELL."CAN YOU TAKE US CROSS THE RIVER?” “YES JUMP UP QUICK!"

THEY SWAM ACROSS THE RIVER. THEN THE RAT PUSH THE CAT INTO THE WATER AND JUMPED ON TO LAND.

"WELL DONE RAT! THE FIRST YEAR WILL BE THE YEAR OF THE RAT AND THE SECOND WILL BE THE YEAR OF THE OX."

"LOOK HERE'S THE TIGER. HE IS VERY TIRED. THE THIRD YEAR WILL BE THE YEAR OF THE TIGER."

"THE RABBIT CAN'T SWIM BUT HE'S VERY CLEVER. THE FOURTH YEAR WILL BE THE YEAR OF THE RABBIT."

THE FIFTH WAS THE DRAGON.

THE SIXTH WAS THE SNAKE.

THE SEVENTH WAS THE HORSE.

THE EIGHTH WAS THE GOAT.

THE NINTH WAS THE MONKEY .

THE TENTH WAS THE ROOSTER.

THE ELEVENTH WAS THE DOG.

THE LAST WAS THE PIG.

The Hare was once boasting of his speed before the other animals. "I have never yet been beaten," said he, "when I put forth my full speed. I challenge any one here to race with me."
The Tortoise said quietly, "I accept your challenge."
"That is a good joke," said the Hare; "I could dance round you all the way."
"Keep your boasting till you've won," answered the Tortoise. "Shall we race?"
So a course was fixed and a start was made. The Hare darted almost out of sight at once, but soon stopped and, to show his contempt for the Tortoise, lay down to have a nap. The Tortoise plodded on and plodded on, and when the Hare awoke from his nap, he saw the Tortoise just near the winning-post and could not run up in time to save the race.
Then the Tortoise said: "Slow but steady progress wins the race

A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a

village, brought out the villagers three or four times by crying out,

"Wolf! Wolf!" and when his neighbors came to

help him, laughed at them for their pains.

The Wolf, however, did truly come at last. The Shepherd-boy,

now really alarmed, shouted in an agony of terror:

"Pray, do come and help me; the Wolf is killing the

sheep"; but no one paid any heed to his cries, nor

rendered any assistance. The Wolf, having no cause

of fear, at his leisure lacerated or destroyed the whole flock.

There is no believing a liar, even when he speaks the truth.

Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were princesses enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess.
One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.
It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a real princess.
Well, we'll soon find that out, thought the old queen. But she said nothing, went into the bed-room, took all the bedding off the bedstead, and laid a pea on the bottom; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea, and then twenty eider-down beds on top of the mattresses.
On this the princess had to lie all night. In the morning she was asked how she had slept.
"Oh, very badly!" said she. "I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It's horrible!"
Now they knew that she was a real princess because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds.
Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.
So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess; and the pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it.
There, that is a true story.

A Fox once saw a Crow fly off with a piece of cheese in its beak and settle on a branch of a tree.
"That's for me, as I am a Fox," said Master Reynard, and he walked up to the foot of the tree.
"Good day, Mistress Crow," he cried. "How well you are looking today: how glossy your feathers; how bright your eye. I feel sure your voice must surpass that of other birds, just as your figure does; let me hear but one song from you that I may greet you as the Queen of Birds."
The Crow lifted up her head and began to caw her best, but the moment she opened her mouth the piece of cheese fell to the ground, only to be snapped up by Master Fox.
"That will do," said he. "That was all I wanted. In exchange for your cheese I will give you a piece of advice for the future: "Do not trust flatterers."

A Wolf found great difficulty in getting at the sheep owing to the vigilance of the shepherd and his dogs. But one day it found the skin of a sheep that had been flayed and thrown aside, so it put it on over its own pelt and strolled down among the sheep.
The Lamb that belonged to the sheep whose skin the Wolf was wearing began to follow the Wolf in the Sheep's clothing. So, leading the Lamb a little apart, he soon made a meal off her - and for some time he succeeded in deceiving the sheep, and enjoying hearty meals.
Appearances are deceptive.

In a field one summer's day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.
"Why not come and chat with me," said the Grasshopper, "instead of toiling and moiling in that way?"
"I am helping to lay up food for the winter," said the Ant, "and recommend you to do the same."
"Why bother about winter?" said the Grasshopper; "We have got plenty of food at present." But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil.
When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food and found itself dying of hunger - while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew: It is best to prepare for days of need.

“You are Xelsis 4 from the Outer Universe, are you not?”
“Yes,” replied the girl standing to face the ten hooded figures seated on the throne-like chairs.
“We are the Keepers, the Supreme Council of the Universe, and we have a task for you.”
The girl Xelsis directed her eyes towards the Keepers. A powerful ray was sent between them.

“Yes, Xelsis 4, you must go to the planet Earth. It is a small planet in the old universe. It is in danger of being destroyed by an Asteroid Hail which is unknown to Earth people. We have our reasons for keeping the planet Earth and it is your task to save it.”
“But I don’t look like an Earth person,” said Xelsis 4.
“But you will,” replied the largest hooded figure. “We are giving you one Earth week to remodel yourself and study the ways of Earth people, then you will set off to achieve your task.”

The Chief Keeper pressed a button and a large screen was projected on to the wall. It showed an Earth girl about fifteen Earth years old.
“This is what you will become.”Xelsis 4 looked at the picture. It showed a strange creature with only one small head - what a small brain it must have! It had two arms and two legs and a very strange-shaped body. And the face! It had only two eyes, a very small mouth and something in the centre of its face which made it look very ugly.

The Keeper looked at Xelsis 4. "Yes, they look strange don't they? This is called a nose. Earth people need them for breathing and smelling."
The second Keeper addressed Xelsis 4.
"Do not despair. You will look like an Earth girl but you will be allowed to keep your own powers to help you in your task. But you must only use your powers for this and for no other reason."
"I understand," replied the girl.
"You will take the Earth name 'Elly' and you will assimilate into a school for other young Earthlings. This is your mission Xelsis 4 - do not fail us!"One week later…

"Hello, you're new here, aren't you?" said an Earth boy to Elly.
"Yes," said Elly. "It all feels so strange."
"Don't worry, you'll soon get used to it. We all do! I'm Sandeep by the way."
A shrill bell rang and Elly had to cover her ears.
"Come on or we'll be late for maths and Mr Pearson will have a fit!"

They walked along an endless white corridor. It was filled with the strange Earth boys and girls that Elly had studied before she arrived on Earth. How uncivilised they were! They were all shouting and shoving each other. None of her friends did that at home. And how weird they looked with their noses in the middle of their faces. And they all had hair on their heads! Red, brown, yellow, black - lots of different hair. Their eyes too - they weren't purple like hers. And now Elly looked like them - brown eyes and brown hair.

As they walked further along the school corridor Elly studied them all closely. They had funny legs too, she decided. Their legs were in two parts joined together by joints called 'knees' and each leg ended in a foot with five things on called 'toes'. Well, there was no accounting for some of the strange creatures living in the universe. And now here she was in their world about to go into a lesson called 'maths'.Elly and Sandeep went into a large room with big windows. There were about twenty-five other Earthlings there. She sat down at a table near the front of the class. A large, red man came in and stood at the front. Elly stared. He was just so red! His face was red, his hair was red and his two large ears were red.

"That's Mr Pearson," whispered Sandeep, "the maths teacher."
"Ah," he said loudly, "you must be the new girl. What's your name?'
"Elly," she replied.
"Well, Elly, today the class is having a test so let's see what you know about maths."

The students in the class fell silent as the teacher handed out the test papers. They sat and worked at their papers, with puzzled looks on their faces and chewing their pencils. Elly wrote her Earth name for the first time. What a strange way of communicating she thought. Why don't they just look into your mind? But then she remembered that Earth people couldn't do that.

Elly laughed when she saw the questions. What baby stuff they learnt here! She wrote all the answers in three minutes and put her pencil down on the table. The red-faced teacher looked at her.
"Ha! No good at maths, hey?"
He walked over to her desk and picked up the test paper. He couldn't believe his eyes. He walked back to his own desk muttering.
"She must be cheating. It's impossible…only fifteen."Elly sat there for the rest of the lesson and then the shrill bell rang again. The students got up and rushed out of the door into the moving mass in the corridor. All except Sandeep.

"Come on, it's break now," he said. "I'll show you where to go!"
They went outside into the school yard. Again the young Earthlings were jumping around and shouting.

A group of Earth boys watched her.
"Ah, look at Sandeep getting all friendly with Miss Weirdo Swotty!" said Brian Nelson.
"Look at her pointy ears! What a weirdo!" said Lee Baxter.
"Leave her alone!" said Sandeep.
"Ooo, trying to protect Miss Smarty Pants are we?" said Brian.
Elly held up her arm in front of Sandeep and pushed him back. She faced the two boys.
"Ha, ha! She thinks she's brave too!" said Lee.

Elly held out her two arms in front of her. Her powers flowed through her arms, her wrists and her fingertips, and she sent a blast towards the two boys. They flew up into the air and came down 'thud' against a brick wall. They both collapsed into a heap. Elly walked away with Sandeep.

Wow, Elly, how did you do that? They are the school's two biggest bullies!"
"Well, they won't be any more," she replied.
Inside her head Elly heard a voice. 'No powers Elly… only for your mission.'Elly spent the rest of the morning in strange lessons like 'technology' (she thought this was studying antiques), geography which was studying different bits of the earth, and music when the young Earthlings made horrible noises called 'singing'. She was glad when the lessons were over.

The shrill bell rang again and Sandeep took her to the school canteen for lunch. All the food was very odd. She ate a triangle of something bizarre called 'pizza' and drank a horrible drink which they called 'cola'. They sat at a table in the canteen. In the corner the television was on. The news came on but Elly didn't understand much of it, then the weather forecast. She watched it intensely. The weather man was reporting strange stormy activity over all the continents of the world, from Africa to Asia.

A voice in her head said, 'Elly, this is the time.'
She stood up and went outside the school building. She walked out into the large green open space away from the buildings and the trees. She stood in the centre of the field, waiting.Elly looked up into the sky. It was darkening at the edges. It was very still and quiet. And then she heard a rumbling noise and saw a flash of light. The first one came quite suddenly out of the darkness. Elly raised her arms and focused her eyes and directed her forces against it. Silver flashes filled the sky and the asteroid exploded. Then she saw the hail - a whole cloud of asteroids of all sizes approaching.

She concentrated fully with her mind, her eyes, her Earth body and her own powers given by her people in the outer reaches of the universe. One by one asteroids forming the hail flashed silver light and then exploded into smithereens and floated harmlessly down to Earth.

Elly sat down. She was exhausted but her mission was accomplished. The Earth was safe and life here would continue. She stood up and turned around. Sandeep stood there staring at her with his mouth open.
"Goodbye, Earth friend!" she called and then concentrated her mind for her journey back through space.

Sandeep watched as she dissolved into a shimmer of coloured light. Then the field was empty.
"Wow!' he said,' Wondergirl saves the world!.. but where is she now?"

The Frog Prince

One fine evening a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs, and went out to take a walk by herself in a wood; and when she came to a cool spring of water with a rose in the middle of it, she sat herself down to rest a while. Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her favourite plaything; and she was always tossing it up into the air, and catching it again as it fell.
After a time she threw it up so high that she missed catching it as it fell; and the ball bounded away, and rolled along on the ground, until at last it fell down into the spring. The princess looked into the spring after her ball, but it was very deep, so deep that she could not see the bottom of it. She began to cry, and said, 'Alas! if I could only get my ball again, I would give all my fine clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the world.'
Whilst she was speaking, a frog put its head out of the water, and said, 'Princess, why do you weep so bitterly?'
'Alas!' said she, 'what can you do for me, you nasty frog? My golden ball has fallen into the spring.'
The frog said, 'I do not want your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes; but if you will love me, and let me live with you and eat from off your golden plate, and sleep on your bed, I will bring you your ball again.'
'What nonsense,' thought the princess, 'this silly frog is talking! He can never even get out of the spring to visit me, though he may be able to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him he shall have what he asks.'
So she said to the frog, 'Well, if you will bring me my ball, I will do all you ask.'
Then the frog put his head down, and dived deep under the water; and after a little while he came up again, with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the edge of the spring.
As soon as the young princess saw her ball, she ran to pick it up; and she was so overjoyed to have it in her hand again, that she never thought of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could.

The frog called after her, 'Stay, princess, and take me with you as you said,'
But she did not stop to hear a word.
The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a strange noise - tap, tap - plash, plash - as if something was coming up the marble staircase, and soon afterwards there was a gentle knock at the door, and a little voice cried out and said:

'Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the words that thou and I said
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'

Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw the frog, whom she had quite forgotten. At this sight she was sadly frightened, and shutting the door as fast as she could came back to her seat.
The king, her father, seeing that something had frightened her, asked her what was the matter.
'There is a nasty frog,' said she, 'at the door, that lifted my ball for me out of the spring this morning. I told him that he should live with me here, thinking that he could never get out of the spring; but there he is at the door, and he wants to come in.'
While she was speaking the frog knocked again at the door, and said:

'Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the words that thou and I said
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'

Then the king said to the young princess, 'As you have given your word you must keep it; so go and let him in.'
She did so, and the frog hopped into the room, and then straight on - tap, tap - plash, plash - from the bottom of the room to the top, till he came up close to the table where the princess sat.
'Pray lift me upon chair,' said he to the princess, 'and let me sit next to you.'
As soon as she had done this, the frog said, 'Put your plate nearer to me, that I may eat out of it.'
This she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, 'Now I am tired; carry me upstairs, and put me into your bed.' And the princess, though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long.

As soon as it was light the frog jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the house.
'Now, then,' thought the princess, 'at last he is gone, and I shall be troubled with him no more.'
But she was mistaken; for when night came again she heard the same tapping at the door; and the frog came once more, and said:

'Open the door, my princess dear,
Open the door to thy true love here!
And mind the words that thou and I said
By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.'

And when the princess opened the door the frog came in, and slept upon her pillow as before, till the morning broke. And the third night he did the same. But when the princess awoke on the following morning she was astonished to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince, gazing on her with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen and standing at the head of her bed.
He told her that he had been enchanted by a spiteful fairy, who had changed him into a frog; and that he had been fated so to abide till some princess should take him out of the spring, and let him eat from her plate, and sleep upon her bed for three nights.
'You,' said the prince, 'have broken his cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish for but that you should go with me into my father's kingdom, where I will marry you, and love you as long as you live.'
The young princess, you may be sure, was not long in saying 'Yes' to all this; and as they spoke a brightly coloured coach drove up, with eight beautiful horses, decked with plumes of feathers and a golden harness; and behind the coach rode the prince's servant, faithful Heinrich, who had bewailed the misfortunes of his dear master during his enchantment so long and so bitterly, that his heart had well-nigh burst.
They then took leave of the king, and got into the coach with eight horses, and all set out, full of joy and merriment, for the prince's kingdom, which they reached safely; and there they lived happily a great many years.