Read Online The Frog Princess by E. D. Baker - Free Book Online

better off as free frogs happily living in the swamp. Now we're stuck here with Rudella the witch and we don't even know why. Hey, Witchy! Answer me! What do you want with us?"
    When the witch continued to ignore him, Eadric got a funny look in his eyes. "No witch is going to ignore me for long," he whispered in my eardrum. "Watch this!" He thought for a minute, then planted his hands firmly on his middle and called out, "Hey, Witchy! You're so ugly that you don't have to dye your clothes! One look at you and they die on their own!"
    I could see the witch's back stiffen, but that wasn't enough for Eadric. He winked at me, then shouted, "I know why you don't have any mirrors in this place. You got tired of cleaning up the broken glass!"
    With a cry of rage, the witch whirled around, scowling ferociously. "Listen, Your Royal Lowness, I don't like frogs and I like princes even less! I suggest you keep your rubbery little lips shut if you ever want to see the light of day again. Now lock those lips, sit down, and don't move. I'll be right back!" Taking a small vial from a shelf, the witch stomped out the door.
    'You couldn't be quiet, could you?" I asked. "If that was the kind of thing you said to the other witch, it's no wonder she turned you into a frog! And now you've gotten a second witch mad at you. Who knows what she's going to do."
    "She doesn't care what I say. What can we do? We're in a cage, for frog's sake! If we annoy her enough, maybe she'll let us go."
    "Or kill us so she doesn't have to listen to you," I said.
    Eadric and I were glowering at each other when the witch returned with a freshly unearthed nightcrawler in her hand. With a gleam in her eye, she dropped the dirt-flecked worm through the bars of our cage and set the vial back on the shelf.
    "There you go!" she said in a syrupy voice. "Have a bedtime snack. Get some sleep and don't worry so much. Too much stress can make you sick and we don't want that, now, do we?" With that, the witch blew out the lantern and shuffled across the room.
    Tiptoeing to the side of the cage, I listened as the witch kicked off her shoes and settled back on an old straw-filled mattress. Seconds later her breathing evened out in sleep.
    "Do you want some?" Eadric said through a mouthful of worm.
    I spun around in surprise. "What are you doing? I thought you were sick to your stomach. You shouldn't eat any of that—it might be poisoned! Spit it out! Spit it out right now!"
    "Are you kidding? This is delicious. It's not poisoned. Here, try some."
    "Great," I said. "I'm stuck in a cage with an idiot who eats food given to him by a witch and will probably be dead by morning."
    "Hey, I'm not the one who's going to bed hungry. You are such a worrier! I've eaten half of this worm already and I still feel fine. If you're sure you don't want any, I'm going to finish the worm and get some sleep. We'll think of a way to get out of this in the morning. Now, leave me alone and let me enjoy my worm in peace. Unlike someone else around here, I know how to appreciate the finer things in life."
    Furious, I went to the back of the cage, as far from Eadric as I could get, and tried to shut out the sound of munching. Although Eadric was soon asleep, I was too restless to lie down. I paced the width of the cage, the gritty floor crunching beneath my feet, but I couldn't sleep and I couldn't come up with an escape plan, either.
    After a while I stopped talking to myself and listened to the sounds of the night. I'd heard something stirring at the other end of the room, a dry rustle that could have been caused by just about anything. Then something else moved overhead until it seemed to be right above me. Whatever else was in the room, I wasn't the only one who was awake. Suddenly, I had something else to make me nervous. Not knowing who or what might be there, I hunched down in the middle of the cage, hoping that the bars were as effective at keeping creatures out as they were at keeping us in. When I