uld understand.

* * * * *

For some weeks the two lived together and never grew tired of each
other's society, and then a terrible misfortune happened. One night,
when the foster-mother lay sound asleep after a hard day's work, a
big, ugly, wet frog hopped in through the open window and stood
staring at Maia under her quilt of rose leaves.

'Dear me! that is quite a pretty little girl,' thought the frog to
herself; 'she would make a nice wife for my son.' And picking up the
walnut cradle in her mouth, she hopped with it to the edge of a stream
which ran through the garden.

'Come and see what I have brought you,' called the old frog, when she
reached her home in the mud.

'Croak! croak! croak!' uttered the son, gazing with pleasure at the
sleeping child.

'Hush; don't make such a noise or you will wake her!' whispered the
mother. 'I mean her to be a wife for you, and while we are preparing
for the wedding we will set her on that water-lily leaf in the middle
of the brook, so that she may not be able to run away from us.'

It was on this green floating prison that Maia awoke, frightened and
puzzled, with the first rays of the sun. She stood up straight on the
leaf, looking about her for a way of escape, and, finding none, she
sat down again and began to weep bitterly. At length her sobs were
heard by the old frog, who was busy in her house at the bottom of the
marsh, twisting rushes into a soft carpet for Maia's feet, and twining
reeds and grapes over the doorway, to make it look pretty for the
bride.

'Ah! the poor child feels lost and unhappy,' she thought pitifully,
for her heart was kind. 'Well, I have just done, and then my son and I
will go to fetch her. When she sees how handsome he is she will be all
smiles again.' And in a few minutes they both appeared beside the
leaf.

'This is your future husband. Did you ever see anyone like him?' asked
the proud mother, pushing him forward. But, after one glance, Maia
only cried the more; and the little fishes who lived in the stream
came swimming round to see what was the matter.

'It is absurd that such a pretty creature should be forced to take a
husband whom she does not want,' said they to each other. 'And such an
ugly one too! However, we can easily prevent it.' And by turns they
gnawed the stem of the lily-leaf close to the root, till at length it
was free, and taking it in their mouths they bore Maia far away, till
the l