Once upon a time, frogs lived in the mountains and went to the lake to swim. Then they moved to lakes and swamps. Want to know why? So I’ll tell you a story that I heard from my grandfather, and you judge whether the frogs did the right thing or not.
A long time ago, on a high mountain lived a frog with his sons. They lived in a large house, which was built by the frog’s mother. The walls of the house were woven from blades of grass, and the roof was a water lily leaf.
Every year, when a water lily grew in the middle of a forest lake and its leaves became large and dense, the frog hurried to the lake, swam up to the water lily, tore off the best leaf and brought it home. Then she dried the leaf in the sun, covered her house with it, and the whole family lived under a green roof until the next summer.
All day long the frog caught midges and was busy with the housework, but her sons did nothing. They were cheerful, naughty and did not like to work at all. From the very morning the frogs began jumping, chatting and laughing. And then, after having breakfast, they ran away to their friends - the same mischievous frogs as they were.
In the forest, in a large clearing, the little frogs played funny games: they jumped over ditches, wrestled, tumbled in the thick grass and sang their frog songs.
So they lived for their own pleasure, and it never occurred to them to help their mother.
But then one day the mother frog got sick. The little frogs were frightened: they loved her very much, although they did not always obey. All day long they now sat at their mother’s bedside and never left her side. Friends come to them, call them to jump over the ditch, and the frogs answer:
- Kwa-kwa, our mother is sick. We can't play with you now.
“Go, kids,” says the frog mother, “I know how much you love to jump.”
But the little frogs still don’t leave, they sit next to their mother. Finally the frog sensed that its death had come and said:
- When I die, children, bury me on the shore of the lake, but don’t bury me on the mountain.
The frog said so and died. The little frogs cried bitterly, and then the eldest one wiped his tears with his paw and said:
“We never listened to our mother.” Whatever she says, they did the opposite. Now we must certainly fulfill her request: bury her right next to the lake.
So the little frogs buried their mother by the lake, in quick sand. How could they have known that in fact my mother wanted to be buried on the mountain? She was used to mischievous little frogs doing the opposite, so she said so. From that time on, the frogs moved to the lake and bequeathed to their children to live in lakes and swamps.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru