The frogs did not want to live in the tundra. They settled in a taiga swamp and began to consider themselves masters of the taiga. True, they don’t see trees; they spend their lives in mossy lakes and rotten swamps. But it seems to them that in these swamps, in these swamps, they can only live. What is there, behind the sedge, behind the hummocks?
“There’s nothing there!” the frogs think. “The end of the swamp, the end of the world. What else could there be except our hummocks? There can be nothing! What other songs can there be besides our croaking? Isn’t it the chatter of birds?”
That's what the frogs said.
And one, the most boastful one, climbed out in the spring to the top of the largest hummock, saw her reflection in a puddle of standing water and croaked:
I am a frog, I am Kwa-Kwa!
There are rumors about me.
I'm a beautiful girl
In the swamp I am the queen.
The whole swamp world knows
That there is no one more beautiful than me!
So the frog croaked, warming its chilled back and crooked legs in the sun. During the long northern cold, the frog slept and caught a cold.
Her voice was hoarse, and it seemed to her that her native swamp had never heard such a sonorous voice.
Having admired its appearance in a puddle of dirty water, the frog began to move its clumsy neck and examine its swamp kingdom. On the hummock where the boastful Kwa-Kwa sat, a tall stalk of sedge grass grew. The frog liked the sharp ribs of the sedge. She touched the sedge with her paw and was delighted:
“This grass is worthy to be my royal pike.” Sharp, faceted, long. With such a peak, no one will be afraid of me. I have a lot of courage, more than enough strength. And with this pike I can rule the whole world.
Then the frog strained, grabbed the sedge rhizome with its paws and tore it out of the moss hummock.
“How powerful I am,” thought Kva-Kva, “I tore a huge heavy peak out of the ground like a hair.”
Waving the sedge stem, the frog began to jump on the hummock and sing his boastful song:
I am a frog, I am Kwa-Kwa!
There are rumors about me.
I'm a heroic girl
In the swamp I am the queen.
The whole swamp world knows
That I am not stronger!
Having sung his song, the frog looked into the puddle and saw a Dragonfly Larva, similar to a water worm. The larva swam past the hummock.
- Hey you little water thing, crawl out of the water here! Hurry up, or I'll stab you with a pike!
The Dragonfly larva got scared and crawled onto the hummock.
- Look at me, little water thing. Do you like me?
- Yes, yes, I really like you! - answered the timid Dragonfly Larva.
- Well, then paint my portrait. Let all the inhabitants of the swamp recognize my beautiful face!
The Dragonfly larva did not dare to disobey and on a round leaf of a marsh water lily scratched the image of a frog with its snout. The frog peered at his portrait for a long time and then said:
“Water little thing, your work seems good to me.” Will you recognize me as the queen of the swamp world?
- Yes, yes, I admit it! — the cowardly Dragonfly Larva hastily answered. - Of course, you are the queen of the swamps, the spear-wielding mistress.
“Okay,” Kva-Kva said, pouting, “for your obedience, I appoint you as my clerk-secretary.” Get ready to write what I tell you.
The Dragonfly larva collected several leaves of a water lily, straightened its antennae and began to write what the frog told it. And this is what she said:
- All inhabitants of the swamp! Anyone who crawls, swims or jumps! Tomorrow at noon, come to the big hummock to bow to the queen of the swamp world. Anyone who does not come will be pierced to death with a sharp pike!
On each sheet of this order, the frog, grabbing liquid mud in its paw, signed its name:
"Queen of the swamp world, wielding a faceted lance, Kwa-Kwa."
After this, the frog went to bed, and the Dragonfly Larva crawled from mound to mound. On every big hummock she posted the formidable order of Kwa-Kwa.
The next day, at exactly twelve o'clock, all the swimming, crawling, jumping inhabitants of the frog swamp gathered. There were timid dragonfly larvae, water bugs and spiders, tailed tadpoles, squeaky flies, pusher mosquitoes, swamp midges, snail slugs and moss worms with boogers. It turns out that they were the only ones who lived in this swamp. The frog was indeed the strongest here.
Rising to the highest hill, where her portrait, painted by the Dragonfly Larva, hung, the frog waved her pike and sang:
I am a frog, I am Kwa-Kwa!
There are rumors about me.
I'm a beautiful girl
I am a mighty queen!
The whole swamp world knows
That no one is smarter than me!
Having finished the song, the frog croaked:
- Do you all understand that there is no one more beautiful than me?
“We understand, we understand,” the swamp inhabitants squeaked and whispered in unison.
“Have you all realized that there is no one stronger than me?”
- Got it, got it!
“Have you all realized that no one is smarter than me?”
“Yes, yes, we understand,” answered the swamp inhabitants.
- Do you recognize me as the ruler of the world? - asked the frog.
- Do you know what the world is? - suddenly a loud voice rang out.
Gray Goose said this. He flew low over the swamp and heard Kwa-Kwa boasting.
-What is the world? - asked the frog.
She was a little scared of the Gray Goose, but then decided that it was a big fat mosquito, and answered mockingly: “Don’t you know?” The world is my swamp. Listen, you fat gray mosquito, to what I will sing to you:
I am a frog, I am Kwa-Kwa!..
“Wait, wait,” said Gray Goose. “I see that you are only a frog.” You will sing me a song later. And now I will show you what peace is.
Gray Goose grabbed the frog by the back with his paw and, spreading his wings, rose high into the sky. The frog closed his eyes. She dropped her pike. The sedge stem spun in the air and began to fall down.
“Look,” said Gray Goose, and the frog opened his eyes.
Below it lay dozens of large and small swamps, fast and quiet rivers flowed, vast forests rustled, mountains smoked with fog.
The world was so huge that the frog's eyes bulged. Her head began to spin.
“I read your order on the hummock.” You seem to consider yourself the queen of the whole world? Now you don’t see the whole world yet. Do you want me to show you the whole world? “Let’s go higher,” said Gray Goose.
But the frightened frog, moving its wide eyes, waved its paws:
- No, no! No need! You don't need anything. Let me go home to the swamp. I don't want to be the queen of the world. I was joking. My eyes will burst if I continue to look into such vastness. Let me go quickly.
Hearing these words, Gray Goose grinned and released the frog from his hard paw. Kva-Kva flew down for a long time and finally landed on her stomach right on a hummock. While falling, the frog tore off his portrait drawn by the Dragonfly Larva and bruised his stomach.
There are still bloody spots on the frog's belly from the bruise. On the back of the frog there are traces of the claws with which Gray Goose held it in the air. And Kva-Kva’s eyes remained bulging. She no longer admires herself, does not boast about her strength or intelligence.
The frog lives cowardly, hiding from any noise in rotten water or in moss hummocks.
The Dragonfly larva sometimes visits the frog, but they don’t like to remember what happened.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru