Aesop's Tales/The Frogs ask for a King
From The Anglish Moot
In the days of old splashing about as blissfully as one could, free and careless in a marsh with nearby ponds and pools, lived a folkdom of frogs who went about life without a care, beset by nobody. Brooks flowed whisper-softly into the marsh and there food was found in fullness. Worms, spiders, and all kinds of small water beings teemed, and in the fresh and green, thick reeds and weeds small fish swam. Notwithstanding their good speed and a life with unfettered freedom, the frogs yearned for a more tightly wielded and well-run way of life. In short, they only wanted a wise king to lead them.
To that end, gathering together they croaked loudly as one, so much so that the elders called upon Jove to send to them a king who would have lordship over them, bring fair laws and a well-run folkdom. There would be a mark drawn between good and bad, right and wrong, and the laws of fair play. Woe strike the wrongdoer, but a goodname would follow the upright. The elders said to Jove, "Send a king to have lordship over us, to keep us on the right path and make our life fulfilled. It is only right for us to be overseered by the gods of Heaven and the kings of Earth.
Jove, smiling at the straightforwardness of their asking, threw down with all his might, a great log that hit the fennish frogdom with an ear-pounding thud. All-fear was felt in every mote of the mind and body of these once carefree frogs, who found themselves diving without heed into the nearest ditch hoping to find shelter in the marsh's muddy depths. The dread kept them in awe for a while. But by and by, and one by one, they dared to come to the water's top to see their new king and bow before him. Soon they became aware that King Log was stock still. Soon after, some of the bolder ones even dared to put their hands on him. Then all the frogs came and did the same; and for sometime afterwards the frogs went about their daily business without caring even in the slightest for still King Log. Sometime afterwards, with their hearts still yearning strongly for a king to lead them, they asked the elders once more to call upon Jove to send them another king to put an end to their lordless ways.
This time Jove gave to them for a king, an eel. The eel, though a friendly kind of fellow, had easy going ways and spent his days merrymaking with his friends and thinking little about the daily running of his kingdom. Leaving all that to his froggy underlings to do; he sought nothing more in life than toothsome tucker, dewy drinks and, above all, the friendship of the fairest maidens. Such was the wont of this harmless, fun-loving wayward wooer that the frogs thought him to be lazy, gadding and rather dim-witted. In the end they began to treat him with such little worth, that one dark night he swam from the marsh, along a brook bound hopefully for another free-and-easy life in some faraway waterhole.
Forthwith, for a third time, they went to Jove begging him to send them yet another king. "We want a king who, in all things, will lead us." They said. The more Jove thought upon it, the more he began to mislike their askings, dumb and silly, as they were. And, furthermore, he was taken aback by their thoughtlessness and unthankful ways for all the good things life had bestowed upon them. All their hounding, at end, kindled the wrath of Jove, and in an wrathful outburst he sent to them a king of another kind: King Stork. No sooner had he reached the marsh than he set upon them; laying hold and eating them one-by-one until there were only a few left. Those blessed with enough good timing to be still alive, with eyes open like never before, wailed in endless sadness and begged Jove to free them from such a fiend. "The king which you asked for shall be your lord." Jove answered, "For when you had that which you ought to have, you should have been thankful, and left well alone. For he that has freedom ought to be thankful. For nothing is better than freedom. And freedom should not be sold for all the gold and silver in the world."
