Елена Лебедева: Лучшие английские сказки / Best english fairy tales

One afternoon they were sitting in Reginald’s stable. Suddenly Blackie said that he had an idea.

‘Why do we not eat coal?’ he said. ‘Trains eat coal and run fast.’

They thought about this for a long time, and at last Reginald said: ‘Let’s try it.’

So they went down to the coal cellar. They were going to take some coal, when Mrs Marry, the landlady, came in.

‘What! You are stealing my coal!’ – she began to cry, and she picked up a piece of coal and threw it at them. They ran away. They had never run so fast in their lives before. [31]

Just then the Mayor was looking out of the window.

‘Oh, that horse can run fast I’m sure it can win the Derby, [32]look at the dog; it’s a real hound I’ll give them each a medal.’ And he did.

Long time ago all the birds could talk like people. Most of all the birds, people liked the talkative parrot, because this honest bird always told the truth.

He lived with a dishonest cruel man. One night the man killed his friend’s cow. When the friend came to look for it in the morning, he asked the dishonest cruel man, ‘Did you kill my cow yesterday?’

‘No, I didn’t,’ said the man.

‘Is that the truth? Let’s ask the parrot, because he always tells the truth.’

‘Yes, he did. This dishonest cruel man killed the cow,’ answered the parrot.

When night came, the man had an idea. He put a great cup on the parrot’s head. Then he poured a lot of water on the cup.

In the morning his friend and some other people came to his house again.

‘I know that this dishonest cruel man killed my cow. The parrot says that he did.’

‘You are wrong! That parrot tells lies. He will not tell the truth even about what happened last night. Ask him if there was the moon in the sky yesterday.’

‘No,’ said the parrot. ‘There was no moon, it was raining all night.’

‘It is impossible! This bird tells lies! What shall we do?’ the people said. ‘Fly away! You can’t live with us!’

So the parrot flew away unhappily into the forest where he met a mocking-bird [33]and told him his story.

‘Why did you not repeat words as I do?’ asked the mocking-bird. ‘Men always think their words are clever.’

‘But the man told lies and he was not intelligent,’ said the parrot.

‘That is nothing,’ answered the mocking-bird. ‘Say what they say, and they will think you are a wonderful and polite bird.’

‘Yes, I see,’ said the parrot, ‘from now on, I will only repeat their words.’

One fine evening a young princess put on her bonnet and clogs, and went out to take a walk by herself in a wood; and when she came to a cool spring of water with a rose in the middle of it, she sat down to rest a while. Now she had a golden ball in her hand, which was her favorite toy; and she was always playing with it.

After a time she threw it up so high that she missed catching it as it fell; and the ball rolled along on the ground, until it fell down into the spring. The princess looked into the spring, but it was very deep, so deep that she could not see the bottom of it. She began to cry, and said, ‘If I could only get my ball again, I would give all my fine clothes and jewels, and everything that I have in the world.’

While she was speaking, a frog put its head out of the water, and said, ‘Princess, why do you cry?’

‘Oh!’ said she, ‘what can you do for me, you nasty frog? My golden ball has fallen into the spring.’

The frog said, ‘I do not want your pearls, and jewels, and fine clothes; but if you will love me, and let me live with you and eat from your golden plate, and sleep on your bed, I will bring you your ball again.’

‘What nonsense,’ thought the princess, ‘this silly frog is talking! He can never even get out [34]of the spring to visit me, though he may be able to get my ball for me, and therefore I will tell him he shall have what he asks.’

So she said to the frog, ‘Well, if you will bring me my ball, I will do all you ask.’

Then the frog put his head down, and dived deep under the water; and after a little while he came up again, with the ball in his mouth, and threw it on the edge of the spring.

As soon as the young princess saw her ball, she ran to pick it up; and she was so happy to have it in her hand again, that she never thought of the frog, but ran home with it as fast as she could.

The frog called after her, ‘Stay, princess, and take me with you as you promised,’

But she did not stop.

The next day, just as the princess had sat down to dinner, she heard a strange noise – tap, tap – plash, plash – as if something was coming up the marble staircase, and soon afterwards there was a knock at the door, and a little voice cried out and said:

‘Open the door, my princess dear,

Open the door to your true love here!

And mind the words that you and I said

By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.’

Then the princess ran to the door and opened it, and there she saw the frog, whom she had forgotten. She shut the door as fast as she could and came back to her seat.

The king, her father, saw that something had frightened her and asked her what the matter was.

‘There is a nasty frog,’ said she, ‘at the door, that lifted my ball for me out of the spring this morning. I told him that he should live with me here, thinking that he could never get out of the spring; but there he is at the door, and he wants to come in.’

While she was speaking the frog knocked again at the door, and said:

‘Open the door, my princess dear,

Open the door to your true love here!

And mind the words that you and I said

By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.’

Then the king said to the young princess, ‘As you have given your word you must keep it; so go and let him in.’

She opened the door, and the frog hopped into the room, and then straight on – tap, tap – plash, plash – from the bottom of the room to the top, till he came up close to the table where the princess sat.

‘Give me a chair,’ said he to the princess, ‘and let me sit next to you.’

As soon as she had done this, the frog said, ‘Put your plate nearer to me, that I may eat out of it.’

This she did, and when he had eaten as much as he could, he said, ‘Now I am tired; carry me upstairs, and put me into your bed.’ And the princess, though very unwilling, took him up in her hand, and put him upon the pillow of her own bed, where he slept all night long.

As soon as it was light the frog jumped up, hopped downstairs, and went out of the house.

‘Now, then,’ thought the princess, ‘at last he is gone, and I will not be bothered by him.’

But she was mistaken; for when night came again she heard the same tapping at the door; and the frog came once more, and said:

‘Open the door, my princess dear,

Open the door to your true love here!

And mind the words that you and I said

By the fountain cool, in the greenwood shade.’

And when the princess opened the door the frog came in, and slept on her pillow. And the third night he did the same. But when the princess awoke on the following morning she was astonished [35]to see, instead of the frog, a handsome prince with the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen.

He told her that he had been enchanted [36]by a witch, who had changed him into a frog; and that he had been fated [37]to be a frog till some princess should take him out of the spring, and let him eat from her plate, and sleep on her bed for three nights.

‘You,’ said the prince, ‘have broken his cruel charm, and now I have nothing to wish for but that you should go with me into my father’s kingdom, where I will marry you, and love you as long as you live.’