Once upon a time, and a very
good time it was, though it wasn't in my time, nor in your time, nor any one
else's time, there was a girl whose mother had died, and her father had married
again. And 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, and never let her have any peace. At last, one day, the stepmother
thought to get rid of her altogether; so she handed 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, or woe betide you." For she thought she would never be able to 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 off,
and asked every one she met to tell her where was the Well of the World's End.
But nobody knew, and she didn't know what to do, when a queer little old woman,
all bent double, told her where it was, and how she could get to it. So she did
what the old woman told her, and at last arrived at 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 she tried again, but every time it was the same; and at
last she sate down and cried as if her heart would break.
Suddenly she heard a croaking
voice, and she looked up and saw a great frog with goggle eyes looking at her
and speaking to her.
"What's the matter,
dearie?" 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 no
how at all."
"Well," said the
frog, "if you promise me to do whatever I bid you for a whole night long,
I'll tell you how to fill it."
So the girl agreed, and then
the frog said:
"Stop it
with moss and daub it with clay,
And then it will
carry the water away;"
and then it gave a hop, skip
and jump, and went flop into the Well of the World's End.
So the girl looked about for
some moss, and lined the bottom of the sieve with it, and over that she put
some clay, and then she dipped it once again into the Well of the World's End;
and 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; for thought she, "what harm can a frog do 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 fine and 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:
"Open the
door, my hinny, my heart,
Open the door, my
own darling;
Mind you the
words that you and I spoke,
Down in the
meadow, at the World's End Well."
"Whatever can that
be?" cried out the stepmother, and the girl had to tell her all about it,
and what she had promised the frog.
"Girls must keep their
promises," said the stepmother. "Go and open the door this
instant." For she was glad the girl would have to obey 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
hopped, and it skipped, and it jumped, till it reached the girl, and then it
said:
"Lift me to
your knee, my hinny, my heart;
Lift me to your
knee, my own darling;
Remember the
words you and I spoke,
Down in the
meadow by the World's End Well."
But the girl didn't like to,
till her stepmother said "Lift it up this instant, you hussy! Girls must
keep their promises!"
So at last she lifted the
frog up on to her lap, and it lay there for a time, till at last it said:
"Give me
some supper, my hinny, my heart,
Give me some
supper, my darling;
Remember the
words you and I spake,
In the meadow, by
the Well of the World's End."
Well, she didn't mind doing
that, so she got it a bowl of milk and bread, and fed it well. And when the
frog, had finished, it said:
"Go with me
to bed, my hinny, my heart,
Go with me to
bed, my own darling;
Mind you the
words you spake to me,
Down by the cold
well, so weary."
But that the girl wouldn't
do, till her stepmother said: "Do what you promised, girl; girls must keep
their promises. Do what you're bid, or out you go, you and your froggie."
So the girl took the frog
with her to bed, and kept it as far away from her as she could. Well, just as
the day was beginning to break what should the frog say but:
"Chop off my
head, my hinny, my heart,
Chop off my head,
my own darling;
Remember the
promise you made to me,
Down by the cold
well so weary."
At first the girl wouldn't,
for she thought of what the frog had done for her at the Well of the World's
End. But when the frog said the words over again, she went and took an axe and
chopped off its head, and lo! and behold, there stood before her a handsome
young prince, who told her that he had been enchanted by a wicked magician, and
he could never be unspelled till some girl would do his bidding for a whole
night, and chop off his head at the end of it.
The
stepmother was that surprised when she found the young prince instead of the
nasty frog, and she wasn't best pleased, you may be sure, when the prince told
her that he was going to marry her stepdaughter because she had unspelled him.
So they were married and went away to live in the castle of the king, his
father, and all the stepmother had to console her was, that it was all through
her that her stepdaughter was married to a prince.
Source :
http://www.worldoftales.com/English_folktales.html
http://ectmills.artstation.com/projects/d8lXW
