Once upon a time, at the bottom of an old stone well, there lived a little green frog. The well was deep and cool and a bit dim. Soft green moss grew on the walls, and in the water lived a few tiny snails and some little water bugs.
Every day the frog sat on a round, flat stone and sang, "Ribbit! Ribbit!" His voice bounced off the stone walls and came back even louder: "RIBBIT! RIBBIT!" The snails tucked into their shells, and the water bugs zipped away. "Oh my," the frog said proudly, "I must be the biggest, loudest frog in the whole world."
When he looked up, he could see the sky. It was a small round circle of blue, just the size of the top of the well, like a lid on a pot. "The sky is just that big," he told the snails. "I can see all of it from my stone. I know everything there is to know."
One summer, the rain came. Pitter, patter, pitter, patter. It rained for many days, and the water in the well rose higher and higher. The frog sat on a floating leaf and bobbed up, up, up, until one morning the leaf bumped gently against the top of the well. The frog blinked. Then he hopped, hop! And he landed on the soft green grass outside.
He looked up, and his mouth opened wide. The sky was not a little circle at all! It was huge. It stretched over the rice fields, over the bamboo, over the far blue hills. Fluffy white clouds floated across it, and a warm yellow sun smiled down. "Oh," whispered the frog. "The sky is so, so big."
The frog felt surprised, and a little shy. Still, he puffed himself up and sang his loudest song: "RIBBIT!" But out here there were no stone walls, so his voice did not bounce back. It sounded small and soft in the wide open air.
A big grey water buffalo was munching grass nearby. She looked down at him with kind brown eyes. "Hello, little one," she said softly. "Are you new here?" The frog nodded. "I thought I was the biggest in the world," he said quietly. "But the world is much bigger than I knew." The buffalo smiled. "The world is big for all of us. That is what makes it fun to explore."
The buffalo lay down in the grass so the frog could climb onto her back. Then she walked slowly and carefully to a wide pond full of lotus flowers. Plop! The frog hopped onto a lotus leaf. Lots of other frogs sat on leaves nearby, a wise old turtle was sunning herself on a rock, and dragonflies danced above the water.
"Welcome!" croaked the pond frogs. "Do you want to sing with us?" The frog was about to sing his loudest, all by himself. Then he stopped and listened first. The pond frogs sang together, some high and some low: "Ribbit, croak, ribbit, croak." It sounded like real music. "Can you teach me?" asked the frog. And they did.
Every day the frog learned something new. The turtle told him about the river. The buffalo told him about the far hills. The dragonflies told him about the flowers. And the frog found that the more he listened, the more there was to learn.
One evening he hopped back to the old well and called down gently, "Snails! Water bugs! The sky is much bigger than we thought. Come up and see!" Slowly, slowly, the little snails climbed the mossy stones, and at the top they gasped at the wide sky, glowing pink and gold.
That night, the frog sat by the pond with his old friends and his new friends, looking up at a sky full of twinkling stars, more stars than anyone could count. "Ribbit," he sang softly, together with everyone. And he smiled, because now he knew: the world is very big, and there is always room to learn, and room for more friends.
Parent tip: Make a small circle with your hands for the sky seen from the well, then open your arms wide when the frog hops out.
Ask your child: After the story, you can ask: “Who was kind in this story, and what did they do?”
In this gentle retelling the frog floats out safely and the buffalo is a kind friend, so nothing scary happens.