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Rh to swim directly towards her. Lidushka again drove it away; but the frog would persist in swimming towards her, opening its mouth all the time; it would not be driven away, but continued to interrupt her in her work.

"Go away, you great, fat thing!" cried Lidushka at last, quite angrily. "Let me know when you have got your baby, and I will come and be its godmother;" and she threw another piece of linen at the frog.

"Very good, very good!" croaked the frog. Then it disappeared under the water, and disturbed Lidushka no more at her washing.

Not long afterwards, Lidushka came again to the rivulet to wash her linen at the usual place, when suddenly, the same frog she had before seen, only that it was much thinner now, swam towards her.

"I have got my children now," croaked the frog, "and have come to ask you to be their godmother, as you promised."

Lidushka remembered that she had said, not long before, that if the frog had a little one, and would let her know, she would be its godmother; she therefore, although alarmed, did not refuse to do what she had once promised.

"But you silly thing," said Lidushka full of anxiety, "where am I to go with you to gratify your wish, and to fulfil my promise?"