The Frogs and Francesca

Once upon a time there was a little girl, named Francesca, who longed to meet a handsome prince and, because her mother had told her the tale of the frog prince, she was certain that if she kissed all the frogs she saw one of them would be a prince.

And so that’s just what she did; one day she went out to a pond near her little house and went looking for frogs and, each time she found one, she grabbed hold of the frog and kissed it.

Unfortunately, though she kissed dozens of frogs, none of them turned into a prince and so she tried hugging the frogs instead; she went round about the pond again picking up all the frogs and giving them a big hug.

But still, none of the frogs would turn into a handsome prince.

However, just as the little girl was hugging the last of the frogs, suddenly, behind her, she saw a gigantic and terrible ogre appear with purple skin and a bright orange eye at the centre of its forehead.

And when the girl saw the ogre, the girl screamed and tried to run but it was no good; the ogre picked the girl up in one of its huge purple hands and threw her into a large sack before carrying her off back to its cave and then, tying the girl up, the ogre began boiling a big cooking pot because he planned to eat the girl up.

And the little girl didn’t know what to do. She started to cry because she was sure she’d be eaten up.

Just then, however, the girl heard a funny noise; a noise like hundreds of frogs croaking and then, suddenly, hopping into the cave came a stampede of frogs and then, bouncing as high as rubber balls upon their little frog legs, the frogs leapt onto the ogre and the ogre was so frightened of the frogs that he ran away out of his cave screaming.

“Help! Get these frogs off me!”, he cried as he ran off into the forest.

And then, not only that, but the little girl felt tiny frog hands struggling to untie the ropes that bound her and, before long, the frogs had set her free.

“You saved me”, said the girl to the frogs, amazed but also greatly relieved.

“Well”, said one of the frogs, leaping up onto her knee, “Anyone who kisses and hugs frogs must like them an awful lot and anyone who likes frogs is our friend”.

And, from that day onwards, the little girl was a friend to all the frogs and, though not one of them was a handsome prince, still she and her new friends lived happily ever after.