The Frogs in the Milk

The Frogs in the Milk

Retold and Adapted by Navin

Once upon a time, two frogs lived in a pond. They enjoyed the water when it was hot, but could not survive if they were fully underwater, because they could not breathe. One day, it began to rain.

The rain normally stopped after a short while, but that day, it kept raining and raining and raining. The pond overflowed, and the frogs had nowhere to go. They eventually hopped into a house in the village.

Finding some flies in the pantry, they were exploring that room, when suddenly, a packet they were standing on began to slide off the shelf.

The frogs tumbled into a pot filled with milk. The frogs tried to climb out of the pot but kept sliding back into the milk since the sides of the pot were very slippery and steep. “We just have to wait here for a while, and when a human comes to use the pot, they will see us and let us out!” said the first frog hopefully.

The other frog agreed, and the pair began to tread milk and swim in the pot. After a long time, nobody came to save them, and they were growing tired. “I think I will give up. Nobody will save us in time, and we are going to drown anyway,” said the second frog. The first frog managed to convince him not to give up and to just swim a little longer. A while later, the second frog again attempted to give up, but the first frog persuaded his friend to continue swimming.

A few hours later, the second frog said, “I am not going to swim anymore. We are going to drown sooner or later, since nobody is coming to help us.” He gave up, sank, and drowned in the milk. The first frog continued to swim. Not even ten minutes later, he felt something solid under his feet. It was butter!

The two frogs had been swimming for so long that the milk had been churning into butter! The first frog swam with renewed vigor, till all the milk became butter. This allowed him to escape the pot, and he hopped away.

Moral: Never give up.