The Boy, the Counselor and the Frog

This is the story of The Boy, the Counselor and the Frog.

A boy who had just recently started being a camper left the rest of his group and went down to the lake. He often went down to the lake to be with the frogs. For some reason he always hung around with the frogs, but on this day while he was there one of the frogs jumped off a lily pad at the edge of the lake and onto the boy’s lap.

Get off, get off! said the boy, Get back into the pond. The frog would not get off.

The boy picked up the frog and threw it back in, but the frog immediately jumped out of the water again, back onto the boy’s lap. Get off, get off, go back into the pond, said the boy.

The frog said, No. Please take me back with you to camp.

What? said the boy, a talking frog?

The frog said, Ask me no questions, just please, please take me back with you to camp. If you do, I’ll be your best friend.

All right, said the boy, and he took the frog back with him to camp.

Indeed, the frog turned out to be very helpful to the boy. The frog would say, Now remember to wash before you go to lunch. The frog would sit next to the boy at the table, and the boy would give the frog things to eat from his plate. When it was time to play softball, the frog went over near first base and coached the boy. Watch it, batter, watch it, batter, the frog would say, Don’t swing at that curve ball. It’s going outside. Sure enough the ball would go outside as the frog said. Then at the next pitch the frog would say, Swing, batter. The boy would swing and hit a good one. The boy would run to first base and the frog would say, Okay, hold it up there, don’t try to make second or they will tag you out. The boy would then stay on first base. If the next batter would hit a pop fly, the frog would say, Hold up there, don’t run or it will be a double play. With this kind of coaching, the boy was doing very well at softball.

One night, as the boy was about to go to sleep, the frog said to him, Watch out. They’re playing a trick on you. They short-sheeted your bed. The boy reached under the blanket and found that the bottom sheet had been folded back up inside so that if he had tried to get into bed his foot would not have gone all the way down. The frog told him about other tricks that the kids were trying to play on him and gave him ideas about tricks that he could play on them. The frog was helpful in many ways. This went on for several days.

Finally, one day the boy and the frog went to dinner. They were serving hamburgers, the boy’s favorite food that he had been looking forward to for a long time. All the other kids had been talking about the day that they would have hamburgers for dinner. Just as the boy was about to bite into his hamburger the frog said, Let me have it.

The boy said, Let you have what?

The frog said, Your hamburger.

The boy said, What? Give you my hamburger? Give my hamburger to a frog? Ridiculous. People don’t give hamburgers to frogs.

The boy was about to bite into his hamburger when the frog said, No, please, I have to have your hamburger. After all, I’ve been your best friend, I helped you in softball, I helped you with the other kids and now you have to do me this favor. Give me your hamburger.

Oh, all right, said the boy, and he gave the frog his hamburger.

No sooner had the frog eaten the hamburger when there was a sudden flash of light and a puff of smoke. The frog turned into a counselor.

What? said the boy, What’s going on here? Who are you, anyway?

The counselor said, I am a counselor. I am really a counselor, but one day, while I was down by the lake, I was making too much noise by splashing in the water and a mean old witch who was living there got angry and turned me into a frog. She said the spell would not be broken until I ate a hamburger. Now you gave me a hamburger and I am a counselor once again. Isn’t that wonderful?

Now the boy had an extra counselor.

The boy and his counselor did all kinds of things together. Sometimes the boy would hit softballs and the counselor would catch them, sometimes the counselor would hit softballs and the boy would catch them. The counselor would also play with the other kids in the cabin. He was a very good counselor and everybody liked him.

One of the things that the kids did at camp was to go on nature walks and collect different things. The boy would say, Come on, let’s catch some bees, but nobody ever wanted to do that. However, one day while they were out hunting butterflies with a net, the counselor caught a bee in his net accidentally and said, Oh, this is an excellent bee. I’ll bring it to the nature shack and we can pickle it in alcohol and then dissect it and see what it looks like inside. I love collecting insects, the counselor said. My father is a lepidopterist and I always wanted to be an entomologist myself.

Oh no, oh no, said the boy. Please, give me the bee. I want to eat it.

You want to eat the bee? asked the counselor.

Ask me no questions, said the boy, just please, please give me the bee to eat.

No, said the counselor. That’s a waste of a bee. Nobody eats bees.

The boy said, Hey, I gave you my hamburger when you needed it. I need the bee.

The counselor gave him the bee.

No sooner had the boy eaten the bee when there was a flash of light and a puff of smoke. The boy was changed into a frog.

What happened? said the counselor, What’s going on? Who are you, anyway?

Ah, said the frog, I am really a frog. I was playing with my friends, splashing in the water when that same witch who changed you into a frog got angry at me and changed me into a camper. She said that I could not become a frog again until I ate a bee. Now, at last, I am a frog once more and I can go back to my friends in the pond. Goodbye. Nice knowing you. With that, the frog hopped back down to the pond and lived there happily ever after.

And that’s the story of The Boy, the Counselor and the Frog. The end.