Once a big fat frog and a lively little frog were playing and hopping together merrily. While playing they found a pail of fresh milk. Both of them were very happy to see that. They thought that so long they have been living and playing in the water, now they can drink plenty of milk and play.
So, the big frog told the little frog, “little brother, let us jump into the milk. We can drink plenty of milk and have lot of fun there, isn’t it?” The little frog agreed and both of them jumped straight into the pail of fresh milk. Initially, they enjoyed and drank lot of milk. But, when it was time to come out of the pail of milk they couldn’t. They found that unfortunately, they are on the verge of death because the sides of the pail were very steep and slippery and so death seemed certain.
To survive themselves, they swam for hours and hours hoping to save themselves somehow, tried their level best. But, then the big frog was exhausted; he lost courage. He said to the little frog, “There seemed to be no hope of rescue, my little brother. Why keep struggling against the inevitable? I cannot swim any longer,” he moaned.
The little one who was still circling the pail urged the big frog saying, “keep on! Keep on! Brother. Have courage, I’m with you. We will definitely manage to save ourselves.” So, they went on for a while. But, now the big frog lost hope and thought it was of no use. Hence, he told the little frog, “little brother, we may as well give up. I’m going to quit struggling,” he gasped.
But, the little frog was determined to save himself. Even though, he was left alone, he thought to himself, “well, to give up is to die, so, I will keep on swimming, as long as I can.” Two more hours passed, and the tiny legs of the determined little frog were almost paralysed with exhaustion. It seemed, as if, he couldn’t keep moving for another minute. But, then he thought of his dead friend, and repeated, “To give up is to be meat for someone’s table, so, I’ll keep on paddling until I die. Even if death is inevitable, I will not cease trying— ‘while there is life, there is hope’!”
With whole hearted determination, the little frog kept on, around and around and around the pail, as if he was chopping the milk into white waves. After a while, just as he felt completely numb and thought he was about to drown, he suddenly felt something solid under him. To his astonishment, he saw that he was resting on a lump of butter, which he churned by his incessant paddling
He was thrilled and joyful “Hurrah! I am saved,” he exclaimed. So at last he leaped out of the milk pail successfully which seemed to be impossible sometime ago. Thus, the little frog learnt an important lesson from this incident that “God helps those, who help themselves”.
Ananya Bhattacharjee
