The Happy Frog

The Happy Frog
(Word count: 996)

Once upon a time, there was a happy frog.  Everything in the forest made him happy.  He loved the sunshine and the rain.  He loved the towering trees and the bubbling brooks.  He loved the singing sparrows and the beautiful butterflies.  He especially loved the big fat flies that buzzed around his head.  He loved to eat them for dinner!

The happy frog's favorite thing in the world was jumping.  He jumped over rocks and streams and even other frogs.  He was the greatest jumper in all the forest.  He was such a happy frog.

In the nearby castle lived a Princess.  She was not a happy Princess.  When she was a little baby, she cried all the time.  When she grew to be a girl, she still cried all the time.  She was a grumpy, unhappy Princess.  She complained that the food was too salty or too bland.  She complained that her bed was too soft or too hard.  She complained that the court jesters didn't make her laugh, and that the ponies her parents bought her were not the right color.  She wanted a purple pony.  Nothing in the kingdom was good enough for the petulant Princess.  Her mother, the Queen, warned her that if she kept making nasty faces, her face would get stuck that way.  And it did!  The Princess became ugly.  Very ugly.

When the time came for the Princess to marry, none of the Princes in the neighboring kingdoms would marry her.  The King offered a great dowry of gold and jewels to any Prince who would marry his daughter.  One by one the Princes visited the King's court, but when they saw how mean and ugly the Princess was, they ran away.  Several commoners heard of the dowry and came to court to marry the Princess.  The Princess declared, "I am the richest Princess in the land.  I am too good to marry a peasant. Get out," she ordered the poor peasants, "before I tell my father to chop off your heads!"  Needless to say, the peasants panicked and ran out the door behind the Princes. 

"Oh!  What to do, what to do?"  The King and Queen wrung their hands in despair.  They feared that the peevish Princess would live with them in the castle forever!

At last, in desperation, the King called the court's Magician.  The Magician was actually just a librarian, but he liked to be called: The Magician.  The Magician told the King a story about a frog under a spell.  When the frog was kissed by a Princess, he changed into a handsome Prince and married the Princess.

"Oh!  Happy day, happy day!" cried the King.  He ordered his men to capture every frog in the kingdom and bring them before the Princess.

Meanwhile, back in the forest, the happy frog was minding his own business and catching flies with his long, long tongue.  The flies were yummy, the frog was happy, and all was right with the world.

So, naturally, disaster struck.

The King's men came into the forest and captured every frog.  The happy frog jumped off his favorite lily pad.  He jumped his very highest jump, but it wasn't high enough.  He was caught, along with all his frog friends.

Back in the throne room, the Princess threw a hissy-fit.  "I won't kiss the stupid frogs, I won't!" she yelled.

"Please?  Please?  Pretty please?" begged the King.  "If you kiss the right one, he'll turn into a handsome Prince and marry you."

"Oh," said the Princess.  "Well, that's all right then."  And she puckered up and started kissing frogs.

There were a lot of frogs.  After the Princess kissed the fiftieth frog, she began to get discouraged.  "How many more of these disgusting green things do I have to kiss before I can marry a handsome Prince?"

The King looked at the Magician.  "One of these frogs had better turn into Prince – or else!"

The Magician began to fear for his life, and said, "I will read every book about frogs and I will find the answer."  He hurried to the library, but not to read books about frogs.  He read every book in the library about magic!

The Princess was about to kiss the very last frog, when the Magician snuck back into the throne room.  The last frog was the happy frog, although not so happy now.  The Princess picked him up and carried him to her lips.  He struggled, and twisted, and tried to jump away.  She leaned forward and kissed him.  He did what any scared frog would do; he peed on her hand.  She screamed, "Eeeww!" and threw the frog to the floor.

The Magician saw that the frog had not changed.  He opened the oldest magic book from the library and read the words. 

The frog started to change.  He grew tall, and strong, and handsome.  The people in the throne room gasped in amazement.  The frog had become a handsome Prince!

The Princess shook her wet hand in his chiseled face and said, "I have been kissing frogs for two hours, and you wait until now to change into a Prince?  Look what you did to my hand.  What do you have to say for yourself?"

The handsome Prince furrowed his brow in concentration.  He worked his jaw in exertion.  He opened his mouth and said:

"Rrrrribbit!"

During the next weeks, the transition to life in the castle went smoothly.  The Princess, though still ugly, was happy now because she was married to the most handsome Prince in the land.

The Prince was happy, too.  The cushion on his throne was softer than the lily pads in the forest.  There were many flies for him to catch in the royal stables.  The only thing he missed was jumping.  His new body wasn't designed to jump as high as his frog's body had jumped. 

Luckily, his new wife was teaching him a new style of jumping.