Page:English Fairy Tales.djvu/251

Rh she dipped the sieve in the cold, cold water, it all ran out again. She tried and she tried again, but every time it was the same; and at last she sate down and cried as if her heart would break. Suddenly she heard a croaking voice, and she looked up and saw a great frog with goggle eyes looking at her and speaking to her. "What's the matter, dearie?" it said. "Oh, dear, oh dear," she said, "my stepmother has sent me all this long way to fill this sieve with water from the Well of the World's End, and I can't fill it no how at all." "Well," said the frog, "if you promise me to do whatever I bid you for a whole night long, I'll tell you how to fill it." So the girl agreed, and the frog said:

and then it gave a hop, skip, and jump, and went flop into the Well of the World's End. So the girl looked about for some moss, and lined the bottom of the sieve with it, and over that she put some clay, and then she dipped it once again into the Well of the World's End; and this time, the water didn't run out, and she turned to go away. Just then the frog popped up its head out of the Well of the World's End, and said: "Remember your promise."

"All right," said the girl; for thought she, "what harm can a frog do me?"