“Whatever can that be?” cried out the stepmother.

Then the girl had to tell her all about it, and what she had promised the frog.

“Girls must keep their promises,” said the stepmother, who was glad the girl would have to obey a nasty frog.  “Go and open the door this instant.”

So the girl went and opened the door, and there was the frog from the Well of the World’s End.  And it hopped, and it hopped, and it jumped, till it reached the girl, and then it said: 

  “Lift me up, my hinny, my heart,
     Lift to your knee, my own darling;
   Remember the words that you and I spoke,
     At the World’s End Well but this morning.”

But the girl would not do the frog’s bidding, till her stepmother said, “Lift it up this instant, you hussy!  Girls must keep their promises!”

So she lifted the frog up on to her lap, and it lay there comfortably for a time; till at last it said: 

  “Give me some supper, my hinny, my heart,
     Give me some supper, my darling;
   Remember the words you and I spoke,
     At the World’s End Well but this morning.”

Well, that she did not mind doing, so she got it a bowl of milk and bread, and fed it well.  But when the frog had finished, it said: 

  “Take me to bed, my hinny, my heart,
     Take me to bed, my own darling;
   Remember the promise you promised to me,
     At the World’s End Well but this morning.”

But that the girl refused to do, till her stepmother said harshly: 

“Do what you promised, girl; girls must keep their promises.  Do what you’re bid, or out you go, you and your froggie.”

So the girl took the frog with her to bed, and kept it as far away from her as she could.  Well, just as the day was beginning to break, what should the frog say but: 

  “Chop off my head, my hinny, my heart,
     Chop off my head, my own darling;
   Remember the promise you promised to me,
     At the World’s End Well but this morning.”

At first the girl wouldn’t, for she thought of what the frog had done for her at the Well of the World’s End.  But when the frog said the words over and over again in a pleading voice, she went and took an axe and chopped off its head, and, lo and behold! there stood before her a handsome young prince, who told her that he had been enchanted by a wicked magician, and he could never be unspelled till some girl would do his bidding for a whole night, and chop off his head at the end of it.

The stepmother was surprised indeed when she found the young prince instead of the nasty frog, and she was not best pleased, you may be sure, when the prince told her that he was going to marry her stepdaughter because she had unspelled him.  But married they were, and went away to live in the castle of the king, his father; and all the stepmother had to console her was, that it was all through her that her stepdaughter was married to a prince.