The Frog and the Ox

Dear friends, there is a tale,

A little frog, after some adventures landward, came hopping back to the pond in great haste. “Oh my brothers,” the frog cried, “I have seen a terrible monster! It was as big as a mountain, with menacing horns, and it seemed to gnaw on the ground and pull up the earth.”

“Now now,” said the biggest frog, almost chuckling to himself. “That’s only the farmer’s Ox. He isn’t so big, perhaps a bit taller than I am, but I could easily make myself just as broad.” With a great force of breath the big frog puffed up his throat and his chest. “See?”

“Oh, this creature was much bigger than that.” said the little frog.

Relaxing for a moment, again the great frog blew himself out, this time even larger, and asked if he was not as large as the Ox.

“Bigger still,” the little frog replied.

So the great frog took a tremendous breath, and blew and blew, and puffed and puffed, and swelled his arms and legs and chest and throat and said: “Now I’m sure the Ox is not big as — —”

But at this moment he burst.

~~~
The etching is titled Cowherd, by Abraham Hendrik Winter, 1854