The Story of the Frog in the Garden
Once there was a most beautiful garden that belonged to a Gardener Princess. It was filled with flowers of every shade; reds, pinks, whites, yellows, oranges, blues, lavenders, and purples. It was a glorious sight to see the garden blooming on a hot summer day. In the garden lived a frog named Ferd. Ferd was happy in the garden for there were plenty of insects and worms for him to eat. Everyday Ferd would wake up early and hop from one cool rock to the next. He would sit quietly on the rock until a bug would fly by and, SLURP-SPLAT, out shoots his tongue to catch his breakfast.
One day the Gardener Princess was working in her garden when she saw the frog. She screamed, “EEK! A frog!” She was frightened of frogs. She grabbed her hoe and started chasing Ferd. “Go away, nasty frog, and stay out of my garden!”
Poor Ferd hopped and hopped until he came to the edge of the garden. He looked back wistfully at the beautiful flowers; reds, pinks, whites, yellows, oranges, blues, lavenders, and purples. With one more hop he was out of the garden and into the forest. It was not as beautiful as the garden but there were still plenty of bugs and worms to eat. Ferd was happy enough.
The next morning in the garden, there were thousands upon thousands upon thousands of bugs and spiders and flies and worms of every shape and description. There were long worms, short worms, fuzzy worms, fuzzy caterpillars, black spiders, brown spiders, hopping grasshoppers, flying grasshoppers, red ants, black ants, flying ants, house flies, fruit flies, bottle flies, shoo flies, green flies, horse flies, and dragon flies. There were big bugs, little bugs, round bugs, square bugs, lady bugs, and mister bugs. Every kind of insect had landed in the garden without a frog.
When the Gardener Princess saw her garden that morning, she was very horrified, “EEK! My garden has been taken over by bugs and flies and spiders and slimy things.” She didn’t understand that the insects knew that this garden had no frog. A garden without a frog is in danger of being taken over by the insect world. A frog in a garden will scare away most of the bugs and eat the rest. But, this garden had no frog.
The poor Gardener Princess grabbed her hoe and started chasing bugs from one end of the garden to the other, down one row and up the next. First she chased down the mums and trampled them flat. Then she chased a grasshopper through the daisies and chopped the flowers to bits. Next she chased a worm through the rose garden. Not only had she ruined the roses but she cut her arms and legs on the rose thorns until she was bleeding profusely. She chased a caterpillar through the tulips. She smashed all the tulips into teeny bits. By the time she was through chasing bugs at the end of the day, she turned around and noticed that she had trampled every flower in the garden. There wasn’t a single flower left. They had all been trampled into the mud, into one mass of brown goock. No longer were there any reds, pinks, whites, yellows, blues, lavenders, or purples; only a mass of brown goock. The Gardener Princess bent down to cry.
Luckily for her Ferd, the frog, was passing by. He heard the sobbing, “I’m so sad. I’ve ruined my whole garden. There’s nothing left but brown goock, slimy insects, spiders and worms and things.”
This made the frog’s eyes light up. He said, “Rrribit, rrribit, rrribit, I love spider-rrribit-s and flies and insects and bugs and slimy things.”
This time the Gardener Princess did not say, “EEK!” when she saw the frog. She missed her flowers so much that she wanted any friend she could find, even a frog. “Hello, I’m so sad.”
Ferd asked, “What’s wr-rribit-wrong?”
“My garden has been overrun by insects and bugs and flying ants and all kinds of dreadful things,” explained the Gardener Princess.
“Well, do you have a fr-rrribit-frog in your garden?” asked Ferd.
“Well, I used to but I chased him out,” she answered.
“Well, that’s your pr-rrribit-problem,” said Ferd. “A gar-rrribit-garden without a fr-rrribit-frog is in danger-rrribit of being over-rrribit-run by insects. You’r-rrribit-you’re not talking about this gar-rrribit-garden rrribit-right here-rrribit with all the beautiful flower-rrribit-flowers of rrribit-reds, pinks, whites, yellows, or-rrribit-oranges, blues, lavender-rrribit-lavenders, and pur-rrribit-purples. Are you?”
She said, “It used to be a beautiful garden but now there’s nothing left but a heap of brown goock.”
Ferd said, “Well, I’m sor-rrribit-sorry to hear-rrribit that because I used to live in this gar-rrribit-garden.”
The Gardener Princess said, “Oh, no! That must have been you that I chased out.”
“That was me, alr-rrribit-alright. Ferd, the frog, in the most beautiful garden in the land-rrribit-rrribit-rrribit.”
What a dilemma. The sun went down. The Gardener Princess went back to her castle and slept. Ferd sat at the edge of the garden and dreamed of the beautiful flowers that used to grow there; the reds, pinks, whites, yellows, oranges, blues, lavenders, and purples.
The next morning the Gardener Princess could not believe her eyes. Out in the middle of the garden hopped Ferd from row to row. “Rrribit, plant a seed. Rrribit, plant a bulb. Rrribit, plant a seed. Rrribit, plant a bulb. Rrribit, plant a seed. Rrribit, plant a bulb.” She couldn’t believe that Ferd, the frog, was replanting her garden but he was.
She ran to the frog, grabbed him, and kissed him profusely. Much to her surprise, Ferd, the frog, turned into the most handsome prince. He was six foot two with blond hair, a forty-five inch chest, could bench press three hundred and fifty pounds, had a Masserati, wore cool sunglasses, and just happened to have a five carat diamond ring in his hand. He slipped it on the finger of the Gardener Princess and said, “Would you please mar-rrribit-marry me?”
She said, “Oh, gladly! I would love to Prince Ferd.”
Well, as the ring slipped on her finger, her finger turned green. She started to shrink, smaller and smaller. Her legs began to get stronger and stronger. Her eyes bulged out from the top of her head. Lo and behold, she had turned into a frog. Well, what a sight.
As you have probably guessed, Prince Ferd turned back into a frog, too. And now, there are two frogs in the most beautiful garden.
The Frog in the Garden by C. Walker ©03