Little Miss Frog

LITTLE Miss Frog was clever and industrious neighbor Big Miss Frog was stupid and lazy. Little Miss Frog, and so Big Miss Frog, was so jealous of her.

Little Miss Frog's mother said to her, "Child, take this bamboo tube and fetch me some water from the river. ' Little Miss Frog went down to the river, but she was stooped to fill the bamboo tube. The current carried it away from her hand. Little Miss Frog jumped into was carried away by the current. Luckily for her, however, she was able to reach the bamboo tube. She clung to it, and thus saved herself from the drowning.

An old Ogress some miles down the river was in the habit of capturing human beings and animals, for she loved to eat flesh. When she saw Little Miss, Frog came down the river, clinging to the bamboo tube, the Ogress swam out to her and brought her ashore. But as Little Miss Frog was so small, the ogress thought that it was not worth eating her up. And So, she decided to employ her servant.

 The ogress took Little Miss Frog to her house, and said, 'Little Miss Frog, rid my hair of lice.' Little Miss Frog looked in the ogress's hair, but it was as clean as it could be. However, she guessed that the Ogress would think her lazy if she said she could find no lice in her hair. So, she said to the ogress, "Please may I go into the kitchen to wash my hands before l handle your beautiful hair?"

 ‘What a clean little girl! exclaimed the ogress. Little Miss Frog slipped out of the back door, and climbed up the fig tree which was growing nearby and brought back the kernel of a fig. After washing her hands in the kitchen, she went back to the Ogress After pretending to search among the hair, she said, oh Mistress, what a lot of louse eggs there are in your hair. And showed the kernel of the fig, which looked like a cluster of louse eggs. The ogress was very pleased, and said that Little Miss Frog was an industrious little girl.

 The next day the ogress had to go out on some business, and she asked Little Miss Frog to mind the house in her absence. "But do not you be inquisitive peep into the bedroom, 'Ogress warned with a frown." Little Miss Frog waited until the Ogress was lost from view, and then she peeped into the bedroom. She saw bones and skulls and half-eaten bodies of human beings and animals. But she kept her nerve, and after carefully shutting the bedroom door again, she sat quietly as if she had seen nothing. The Ogress came back, and she said to Little Miss Frog, 'You are a good little girl. Will you stay in this house for many months?

 "I would love to, Mistress," replied Little Miss Frog, "but I am always wondering who is looking after my old mother, now that her only child is away from her.”

 "Are you afraid of me? ' Ask the Ogress, if you wanting to find out if Little Miss Frog had disobeyed the secret of her bedroom.

"I respect you, Mistress,’ said Little Miss Frog, sweetly, " and I love you. I'm not afraid of you. The ogress was so pleased with Little Miss Frog's answer that she gave her seven bars of gold, and allowed her to walk back along the river bank to her own village.

 All the frogs in the village praised Little Miss Frog when they heard her story, and Big Miss Frog became very jealous. She went down to the river in a huff, taking a bamboo tube, and floated down the stream astride the bamboo tube. The Ogress, as expected, swam out to Big Miss Frog and brought her ashore. Although Big Miss Frog was big for a frog, she was too small for the Ogress to eat her, and so Ogress decided to employ her as a servant. The Ogress took the frog to her house and said "Big Miss Frog,

rid my hair of lice. ' Big Miss Frog gave the hair a glance, and told her the mistress that there were no lice and her hair. "What a lazy girl, 'thought the ogress. She is telling me a lie just because she is too lazy to look for the lice." The next day the Ogress had to go out on some business and she asked Big Miss Frog to mind the house.

‘But don’t you be inquisitive and peep into my bedroom,’ she warned

With a frown. The opened the bedroom door, and seeing the bones and skulls and the half-eaten bodies, she cried out in fear, ‘I want to go home!’ The Ogress, who had gone only a short distance heard her cries and came rushing back. Finding Big Miss Frog crying, With

The bedroom door wide open, she at once knew that Big Miss Frog

Had disobeyed her. So, she ate up Big Miss Frog.