Bethjoy.com

The Story of a Frog(and other things)
Written by Elizabeth Joy Von Fange

Once upon a time there was a frog on a lump on a log on a whale on the bottom of the sea. In certain parts of the sea the frog would have died from the tremendous pressure of the depths but fortunately the bottom of the sea on which rested the whale was very close to the top of the sea so that, in fact, the log was well above the water and the frog was able to sit quietly and contently and watch the waves wash away onto the shore.

But the frog wasn’t happy and content. The primary reason was that flies were not plentiful and also the frog had a dread fear of the whale rolling over and of himself being squashed while his dearly beloved log was turned into splinters. Whales weigh a lot you know.

There didn’t, however, seem to be anything that the frog could do about the situation. He couldn’t swim to shore, for it was much too far away. So day, after day, the frog sat on the lump on the log and waited, waited for he knew not what. And the odd thing is, that I don’t know what he’s waiting for either but I do have two ideas suggested by other stories perviously written and I think I’ll be going with one of them. The story idea I’m not going with is the idea that this whale is Monstro and that the frog is somehow going to meet up with Pinochio but that would be absurd.

One day it chanced that a beautiful princess was walking along the beach and off in the distance she saw the top of the whale with the log and the frog on it. Being a princess whose eyesight was not of the best she was unable to determine that what she saw was a frog on a lump on a log on a whale on the bottom of the sea but she thought it was an palace on an island and that it was a great distance away.

Being a princess that curiosity deeply stirred she promptly wondered why she had never seen this sight before until it at last occurred to her that she had never come down to that beach before and therefore she couldn’t have seen the island at any previous time. Looking about she wondered if there was a boat near at hand for she did not wish to get her lovely pink silk gown wet wading out to the island.

Near at hand there actually was a boat. It was not the best of boats and any one who knew a lot about boats could have seen at once that it would be prone to leaking and would move slowly in the water. The princess however, didn’t know much about boats and even if she had her eyesight was such that she couldn’t have seen any great detail about the boat so she promptly went to the boat and as no owner was around that she could ask permission of and as being a royal princess she felt sufficiently capable of borrowing items without their owners permission she calmly pushed the boat into the water, though not without a great deal of effort, and the jumped in it and took up the one oar in the boat and began attempting to make her way to the frog on the lump on the log on the whale on the bottom of the sea that she thought was a place on an island on the bottom of the sea.

The frog, turning around from looking out at the sea stretching away to the horizon, saw the princess coming towards him in the boat. The first thing he noticed was that someone was coming towards him in the boat and that made his heart leap for joy for perhaps now he was going to be able to get off the whale. The second thing he noticed was that that person was a charming young princess of great beauty. The third thing he noticed was that that princes knew very little about boats and due to her paddling skills it would probably take her all day to reach him. However, as he was enjoying the spectacle and the novelty of the situation he didn’t mind waiting so he sat on the lump on the log on the whale on the bottom of the sea and looked at the princess patiently struggling her way forward.

The princess was beginning to think that this was not so fun. Also the bottom of the boat had unaccountably become rather damp and a slight puddle of water was getting the hem of her skirt wet and she didn’t like that very much. And the exertion was beginning mess up her hair and the rest of her appearance, or so thought she, and she didn’t like that. However she was still very curious about the island and struggled on even though, as she gradually approached, the island she saw began looking remarkably like a whale. When she got right next to the whale and found out that it was a whale and that on the whale was a log on which which was a lump on which was a frog that jumped at her she was inclined to scream therefore the princess screamed. After all, a frog jumping at one is a rather frightening circumstance.

The frog wished to assure the princess that he meant her no harm and just wanted to return with his log back to the shore however as he incapable of human speech this was rather hard for him to do. The princess, after her first scream, decided to scream once more and seemed to like it so much that she kept on doing so until the whale, who had been peacefully napping, woke up. He opened his great eyes and turned one of them in the direction of the princess who promptly started screaming even louder.

The frog, afraid of the whale starting to move and the damage that would then be done, wanted to silence the princess and as the only way he knew for noises to stop coming forth from somewhere was to cover whatever it was that the noises were coming from he made a gallant jump in the direction of the princesses mouth hoping to get her stop screaming.

The results were far beyond his expectations for the instance their lips met he turned into a handsome prince and was able to very effectively keep the princess from screaming since she was so surprised that even had her mouth been free she would not have screamed.

However, due to the amount of weight that a tall, strong, handsome Prince weighs and due to the already soggy condition of the boat water began coming in even more rapidly into the boat. As soon as they were aware of other matters the prince and the princess observed that the boat was rapidly going down and as there was nothing else for it and the whale had gone back to sleep again they hastily abandoned ship and climbed on top of the whale and sat down on the log. And as they sat there they looked at each other and smiled and then, quite a while later, they looked towards the shore and noticed that it seemed further away and lower down than they remembered seeing it and the prince at first accounted for this by the fact that he was a prince now and not a frog and that naturally his point of view must have changed. However when the princess commented on the difference in the view he decided that this must not be the case and he looked down.

He was aware of a change. The lump on the log had changed into a comfortable bench on which he and the princess were sitting and the log had turned into a palace of great magnificence and the bench was on a balcony looking out towards the land. The whale had evidently turned into an island which was probably was resting on the bottom of the sea. The sea did not seemed to have changed. There was no sign of the boat.

“I think we may be stuck here” the prince said after not seeing any sign of boats of any sort.

“I wouldn’t mind if only there was a minister here.” The princess said calmly. Just as they were talking a door opened and turning they say a minister.

“Did you call?” he asked and the Prince looking at the princess who nodded with her eyes shining and said “Yes.” So the prince and the princess were promptly married and they lived happily ever after together on the palace on the island on the bottom of the sea. THE END