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Once upon a time, there was a girl
whose mother was dead and whose father was dead.
And who lived with her stepmother in a little house beside a great dark forest.
The girl and her stepmother did not particularly get along.
The stepmother was resentful of the fact that she had to look
after this child who wasn't her own.
As time went on, she got angrier and angrier at the girl,
despite the fact that the girl was very obedient.
Finally, it got to the point where she just hated the girl, it was too much.
And one day, she broke.
While the girl was doing her chores, the stepmother just turned to the girl
and she took a sieve from her kitchen,
and she thrust it at her stepdaughter and she said:
"OK, this is what I need you to do: I want you to go out into the world,
I want you to take this sieve to the Well of the World's End,
fill the sieve with water, and bring it back to me.
And until you do, I do not want to see your face ever again.
Well, the girl could've argued, but she was very obedient
so she simply nodded and she took the sieve and out into the world she went.
She walked through the forest and she walked through the fields,
and over the hills and the mountains, and she went from village to village
until her clothing fell to rags and her shoes were worn away from her feet.
And everywhere she went she asked the same question,
"Have you heard of the Well of the World's End?
Do you know where I can find the Well of the World's End?"
And everywhere she went, everyone she met gave her the same answer,
"No, I'm really sorry but I've never heard of the Well of the World's End.
I have no idea what that is."
And so she just kept on going and going and going.
One day she came to another forest
and she was walking through it down a little path and
down the path in the other direction came
a little old woman carrying her firewood on her back.
And the girl did what she usually did, she greeted the old woman,
she talked about the weather for a while, and then she came out
with the question she asked everybody,
"Have you heard of the Well of the Worlds's End?
I really really need to find it and it doesn't seem to be anywhere!"
"Oooh!" said the little old woman. "Actually, I do know where the
Well of the World's End is, you're almost there.
Just keep on going down this path and when you get to the crossroads,
turn right and walk until you come to the Well of the World's End."
The girl was extremely happy to hear this and she thanked the old woman
and right away she went right down the path and she walked down the path,
she came to the crossroads, she turned right and she kept walking and walking
until the trees fell away and there it was in front of her,
a beautiful little wellspring, the Well of the World's End.
The girl fell to her knees before it, finally she had gotten to where she was going.
She took her sieve and she dipped it into the water.
But... the water ran out the bottom of the sieve.
And the girl couldn't believe it, she tried it again and again
and she just kept on dipping it into the water and every time the water ran out the bottom.
And she tried and tried and nothing happened and finally she just threw herself
to the ground in despair and she began to weep.
But as she lay there, she heard a little voice,
apparently speaking right into her ear.
And the voice said, "Hello, why are you crying?"
The girl got up and she looked around and she couldn't see anyone,
she'd have thought she was completely alone
and there seemed to be no one there and she said
"Is there somebody here with me?"
The little voice said, "Yeah, I'm right here, look down."
And the girl did and she looked down and there,
on the banks of the well, was a little green frog,
winking and blinking in the sunlight.
The girl said "Oh, hello."
The frog said, "Hello to you too!
I couldn't help but notice that you seem to be a bit upset about something.
Is there anything I can do to help?"
Well, the story just came pouring out of the girl,
"My stepmother, she sent me out into the world
and she said I had to go to the Well of the World's End
and I have to take this sieve there,
and I have to fill it with water from the Well of the World's End
and I looked and looked and I couldn't find it and then
finally I did find it and it's a sieve, it's a sieve!
And the water kept on running out of the sieve and I just don't know what to do!"
*The girl sighs*
The frog listened to this very calmly, consideringly, and then he said,
"Ahhh that's interesting, I actually do think I may have a solution for you.
However, it will come at a price.
I will give you the solution but you will have to make me a promise."
"Oh anything!" said the girl. "I will do anything you want!"
"Anything?" said the frog.
"Anything!" said the girl.
"Alright then" said the frog,
"I will need you to promise me, eventually, sometime in the future,
to do my bidding for an evening and a night."
"Oh that's perfect" said the girl,
"I..I-..I mean yeah.. I thought it would be something a lot worse!
Let's do that, please, give me the solution!"
The frog looked up at her and he began to sing,
"Pack it with moss my hinny, my heart, pack it with moss my own true love.
Remember this promise that you've made to me.
Here at the Well of the World's End."
And the girl tried it. She took the sieve and she packed it with mud and moss
and she dipped it into the water and the water stayed in the sieve.
The girl was so ecstatic about this that she didn't even stop to thank the frog.
She jumped up holding the sieve stiffly before her, and she began to run.
She ran through the forest, down the path, she ran through the fields,
and over the hills and the mountains and through the villages,
and she ran through the forest near her house,
and she ran, and she ran, and she ran, not stopping day or night
until she finally came back to her stepmother's house.
"Here it is, finally I've got it!"
*The stepmother sighs*
The stepmother was not really very happy to see the girl.
She had been hoping she'd go out into the world and never come back again.
But what could she do, the girl had obeyed her, she had done her task.
"Alright" she said, and she welcomed the girl back into the house.
She took the water and she threw it away, and they went back to their normal routine.
Until that night, when they sat down to dinner.
The girl was, after her long and arduous journey, very hungry,
and looking forward to the meal. And she saw the food, oh it's good food!
She picked up her first bite and she raised it towards her lips,
but just then there came a strange noise from the door.
It wasn't quite a knocking, it was more of a *scritch, scritch, scritch.*
And the stepmother heard it and said, "Did you hear something?
Is there someone at the door?"
The girl had by this point forgotten all about the frog and she just said,
"No, no, I'm sure there wasn't. I'm really hungry, let's- let's just eat."
And she again raised the food towards her mouth.
*Scritch, scritch, scritch...*
"I'm sure there's someone at the door, there's such a strange noise coming from over there!"
"No, I'm sure it's just the wind, it's just the wind, let's eat!"
And again the girl raised the food to her mouth.
But this time, a little voice began to sing:
"Open the door my hinny, my heart. Open the door my own true love.
Remember the promise that you made to me, down at the Well of the World's End."
"Issss.. there something you're not telling me" said the stepmother,
"Is it possible that you made somebody some kind of
a promise when you were at the Well of the World's End?"
"Ummm.... mayyy-be.. it's possible there was a conversation with a frog of some sort,
you know I can't quite remember, but maybe I may have promised to
do his bidding for an evening and a night,
but it really doesn't matter, let's, let's eat our-"
"Oh no, no, no, no, no... Girls must keep their promises!
You go straight to that door and you open it up and you let that frog in!"
*The girl sighs*
Well... there is a difference between being at
the Well of the World's End and being really sad
and wanting things to go right for you and being at the end of your rope
and making a promise to the frog
- and -
there's a difference between that and having the frog in your house making demands of you.
The girl didn't really want to do this,
the frogs are kind of slimy and she would rather have not.
But she did promise, she was very obedient, and she knew what she had to do.
She went to the door and she opened it up and she let the frog in.
The frog hopped into the house.
Well the girl went back to her meal, decided that she would just ignore the frog,
pretend he wasn't even there.
And once again she raised the bite to her mouth and a little voice began to sing.
"Lift me up softly my hinny, my heart. Lift me up softly my own true love.
Remember the promise that you made to me, down at the Well of the World's End."
"Hmmmm... no... I realllly don't want to do that."
"No, no, no, no, no! Girls must keep their promises!
You lift that frog up and you put him right beside your plate right now!"
*The girl sighs*
The girl was very obedient. She lifted up the frog as she
put him right beside her plate, and again she prepared to ignore him.
She lifted the food towards her mouth and a voice began to sing:
"Give me some food my hinny, my heart. Give me some food my own true love.
Remember the promise that you made to me, down at the Well of the World's End."
"Mmmmmmm.. no I realllly, reallllly don't want to do that!" said the girl.
"No, no, no, no, no! Girls must keep their promises!
You feed that frog out of your own hands right now!"
*The girl sighs*
She was very obedient. The girl fed the frog with her own hands.
She didn't eat much herself, she had lost her appetite.
The meal was finally over.
The girl took the dishes and flung them into the sink and then made a beeline
for her room because she just hoped that when she closed the door,
the frog would leave her alone.
But she was brought up short by a little voice singing,
"Take me to bed my hinny, my heart.
Take me to bed my own true love.
Remember the promise that you made to me, down at the Well of the World's End."
"Hmmmmm...... I realllllly really really really really don't want to, please don't make me do that!
Don't make me do that!"
"No, no, no, no, no, no!
Girls must keep their promises!
You take that frog and you put him right into your bed and
you sleep with him all night!"
*The girl sighs*
The girl was very obedient.
She picked the frog up off the table, she ran across the room, she ran into her bedroom,
she flung him down on the bed,
she jumped into the bed herself, she pulled up the covers around her,
she got as far away from the frog as she could,
and she turned away from him and closed her eyes
and hoped, hoped, hoped
that nothing else would happen that night.
She must have slept a little bit,
because when she opened her eyes next,
she turned in her sleep and the first thing she saw
was the frog on her pillow winking and blinking at her in the dim, dim light.
The night had almost passed, the sun was not quite yet ready to rise.
The girl looked at the frog,
and the frog looked at the girl,
and the frog once more began to sing:
"Cut off my head my hinny, my heart.
Cut off my head my own true love.
Remember the promise that you made to me, down at the Well of the World's End."
"No!", said the girl, "No! I can't do that!
Please don't ask me to do that, it's not fair... to you.
I couldn't do that to someone who had helped me,
just... ask me something else, anything else,
I've done everything you said."
But the frog just kept looking at her,
and it said steadily,
"Go get an axe and cut off my head."
The girl begged and she pleaded and she tried to reason with the frog
but it wouldn't listen to her,
and she had promised.
And finally, she went to the shed and she got an axe.
She brought it back to the bedroom.
She looked at the frog and she said,
"Please."
And the frog just looked at her and said,
"You know what to do."
So the girl took the axe, and she raised it above her head
and she shut her eyes because she didn't want to look at what she was doing.
And she brought the axe down as hard as she could on the frog.
She kept her eyes closed because she just didn't want to see.
But finally she had to open them and she cracked open her eyes.
But what she saw was not what she expected to see.
The frog was gone.
In his place there was a young man on the bed beside her,
with the covers drawn up around his chin.
The girl said,
"What... what happened to the frog? Who are you?"
And the boy said,
"Well, it's a funny story,
I am the frog.
I was under an enchantment,
and I had to stay as a frog until a girl did my bidding for an evening and a night,
and kept her promise.
And now you have fulfilled these requirements, and you've done that.
And he took her hand in his.
In the morning,
the stepmother had been kind of gleeful all night about thinking about her stepdaughter
in bed with a frog and how wonderful this was,
and how, you know, the whole journey had actually turned out quite well after all.
And she just couldn't stand it any longer, she had to go see this.
So in the morning she tiptoed across the room and she cracked open the door
and she looked in.
But in fact what she saw was the girl in the arms of a beautiful boy
as the sun rose up in the morning.
The End.
It's over now.
[applause]