Page:The art of story-telling, with nearly half a hundred stories, y Julia Darrow Cowles .. (IA artofstorytellin00cowl).pdf/167

 At length he spoke. "I will give you a great log for a king. It will bear you upon the water and the sun will shine upon you as you rest on its broad surface."

But the frogs were angry at this. "The idea!" they shouted. "We want a living king; we want no dead log for a king."

So the Great Ruler knit his brows and thought again for a very long time.

At length he spoke. "Since you insist upon it, I will give you the stork for your king."

Then all the frogs sang joyfully, "Yes, we will have the stork for our king. The stork is our king! The stork is our king!"

So the stork was sent to rule over them, and as soon as he came among them he began to eat. And he ate and ate—till he had swallowed every frog in the land.

The Adder That Did Not Hear

Away in the midst of the forest, there lived a tiny adder. He was so very little that the great beasts never thought of talking to him. But the spiders and the wasps and the frogs often stopped to visit at his doorway.