Once upon a time there was a king's daughter whose favorite toy was her golden ball. Every evening she threw it high in the air and caught it again — until one day it slipped, rolled over the edge of the well, and — splash! — sank into the deep water.
The princess sat down by the well and cried. Then a voice said, 'Why are you crying, king's daughter?' A frog stretched his head out of the water. 'My golden ball has fallen into the well,' she sobbed.
'I will fetch it for you,' said the frog, 'if you make me your friend. I want to eat at your little table and sleep in your little bed.' The princess thought, 'What nonsense a frog can talk!' and quickly called out: 'Yes, yes, I promise!'
The frog dove down and brought the ball back up. But the princess simply ran away! The next evening, as she sat at dinner, there came a knock at the door: plip, plop, plip, plop. 'King's daughter, open up — have you forgotten what you promised?'
The king had heard everything and said calmly, 'What you have promised, you must keep, my child.' So the princess opened the door. The frog ate from her little plate, and she noticed it wasn't so bad after all. He even told funny stories from the bottom of the well.
And when the frog sat sleepily on her pillow that evening and she gave him a little good-night kiss — suddenly there was no frog at all, but a young prince with kind eyes. A spell had fallen away from him, because at last someone had kept their promise.
The two became the best of friends and from then on played with the golden ball together every day — and this time it never fell into the well again.
