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GRIMMS' FAIRY TALES. |
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In olden times, when people could have all they wished for at once, lived a king who had many beautiful daughters; but the youngest was so lovely, that the sun himself would wonder whenever he shone on her face. Near to the king's castle lay a dark, gloomy forest, in the midst of which stood an old linden tree, shading with its foliage the pleasant waters of a fountain.
One day, when the weather was very hot, the king's daughtei came into the forest, and seated herself on the side of the cool fountain, and when at last the silence became wearisome, she began to toss a golden ball in the air, and catch it again, as an amusement. Presently, however, the king's daughter failed to catch the golden ball in her hand, so that it fell on the ground, and rolled over the grass into the water.
The princess followed it with her eyes till it disappeared, for the water was so deep that she could not see the bottom.
Then she cried aloud, and began to weep bitterly for the loss of her golden ball. Presently she heard a voice exclaiming—-
"Why do you weep, O King's daughter? Your tears could melt even the stones to pity you 1"
She looked at the spot from whence the voice came, and saw a frog stretching his thick ugly head out of the water.
u Oh, there you are, old water-paddier," she said. " Well, then, I am crying for the loss of my golden ball that has fallen into the fountain."
" Then weep no more," answered the frog; " I can get it for you. But what will you give me if I fetch your plaything ?"
"Oh! anything you like, dear Frog," she replied. "What will |
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