There was once a beautiful dukes daughter called Amy playing with her golden ball. It was her pride and joy, a gift from her grandmother before she died, and she loved it. But one day she dropped it in a well and could not retrieve it.
"No!" she cried, trying to reach it.
"Excuse me Amy" said a frog by her hand. "But I could retrieve your ball, if you give me what I want in return."
"Anything, please just retrieve my ball."
"I want a kiss, if you please" he said.
"Yes, yes" said Amy, but when the frog brought her ball to the surface she took it and ran away from the slimy creature.
However, that night as she ate her supper the frog entered singing
"There was a girl,
Open the door!
She made me a promise,
I'll tell you more!
A promise, a promise,
That she must keep.
I've come for my kiss, her promise to keep.
Amy, O Amy, you cannot hide!
Your frog companion waits outside!"
The duke looked at his daughter and asked "Did you truly make such a promise"
She hung her head in shame and said "Yes father, I dropped my ball in the well and I promised to kiss the frog if he retrieved it for me, and he did"
The duke was wise, and honest, he knew what the right thing to do was.
"Then you must keep your promise my dear" he told her.
"But he's so slimy"
"Was he slimy when you made the promise?"
"Yes but-"
"Then you must kiss him"
So with very bad grace Amy picked up the frog and kissed it, face screwed up in disgust.
But as she did, he began to change, and became the prince, who had been missing for years.
They all stared in shock then the Duke said to a page.
"Have news of the princes return sent to the palace immediately."
"I didn't realise..." whispered Amy as the page sprinted out.
"What?" snapped the prince "That I was the prince. You still tried to take advantage of a creature doing you a favour." and with that he stalked out of the room, furiously.
"You know" said the duke "If you'd just done as you promised then you could be betrothed to a prince by now"
-*-
It turned out that the poor prince had had a curse placed on him by a wicked witch that only the kiss of a beautiful woman could break.
Three days later the princes carriage arrived with his man servant, Henry. When the prince had disappeared Henry had been so distraught that he had to have three bands of steel wrapped around his chest to keep his heart from breaking.
When the two met the greeted each other joyfully and one by one the bands round Henrys chest snapped.
"Grief forged the bonds at first:
Grief for my lied accurst.
Joy made the bonds burst" said Henry as they snapped, and both prince and man servant realised who they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with.
A month later they were married, and became the first gay royal couple and together they ruled fairly and wisely. And everyone agreed that they made a sweet couple, except for Amy, who was forever bitter about her missed opportunity.
The End.
