Twinkle

One day a Frog was hopping down a forest trail. Suddenly he came upon a Beautiful Princess. The frog stopped dead in his tracks...he was mesmerized by her beauty. “I must be dreaming,” he thought to himself, but he knew he wasn’t.

The Beautiful Princess smiled at the Frog and looked down at him and said, "Aren't you a little cute guy," and then asked, "What's your name?" "Twinkle!" replied the Frog. The Frog was star struck that such a beautiful woman would take the time out and ask him his name. The Beautiful Princess then said, "What on earth are you doing in the forest. Shouldn't you be in the pond with the rest of the other frogs?" The Frog looked at her with only love and admiration radiating from his eyes and replied, "I'm just hopping through the forest."

The Beautiful Princess thought to herself, "What a cute little guy. Maybe I'll keep him and take him back to the castle with me, or even better, I'll take him back to his pond and set him free."

Suddenly a large black Snake dropped out of a tree onto the trail. It looked at the Princess and thought about biting her, but in this moment it was hungry, and decided that the Frog would make a good noon day meal. "Gee," thought the Snake to itself, "This is my lucky day, normally I have to go down to the pond to catch one."

The Frog was the first to see the black snake coming menacing towards him and the Princess. Being the Frog he was he said to the Princess, "Run to safety, I'll stop the snake while you get away!" The Frog to the amazement of the Beautiful Princess jumped into the pathway of the snake. The Snake grabbed the poor little guy and gobbled him down. The Snake then took off to find a tree to sleep off his freshly caught noon day meal.

The Beautiful Princess had given out a cry of anguish upon seeing the Snake eat the Frog. She wanted to go after the Snake and destroy it, but it had vanished just as quickly as it came. Later that day the Princess returned to the castle. Her father, the King, was glad to see her, he had begun to worry because she hadn't returned before dark. He put his arm around her and said, "Tell me what new discoveries did you make today." His daughter told him about the frog named "Twinkle," and what had happened to him. In her sadness of telling the story she began to cry.

The King loved his daughter very much and seeing her hurt, deeply moved him. Putting his arm around her he gently walked her out onto the castle patio. By now it was getting very dark and the stars were shining bright in the night sky. He was glad his daughter was safe and here with him. He then thought about the frog and just as he did one of the stars seemed to be shining brighter than all the others. The King pointing up to the star said to his daughter, "Do you see that star glittering brighter than all the others." The Beautiful Princess looking up said, "Yeah." "Well," said the King as gently and as softly as he could, "It's the frog, Twinkle, he’s signaling to us......Letting us know that everything's okay."

The years went buy and the young Beautiful Princess grew up to be a fine loving and caring woman. Throughout her life she would meet many more talking frogs, but she would never forget that first one.

Men would travel long distances and endure great hardship just to meet and be with her. I know this to be true because I was one of them. And like that first talking frog, I too upon meeting her for the first time was stopped dead in my tracks... mesmerized by her beauty.

            Timothy E. Stevenson   1995©
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