Die digitale Landesbibliothek Oberösterreich

and a wriggle,—a movement that afforded illimit- 
able amusement, and of course consolation, to the 
king, for (notwithstanding the protuberance of his 
stomach and a constitutional swelling of the head) 
the king, by his whole. court, was accounted a 
capital figure. ~~ 
But although Hop-Frog, through the distortion 
of his legs, could move only with great pain and 
difficulty along a road or floor, the. prodigous 
muscular power which nature seemed to have 
bestowed upon his arms, by way of compensation 
for deficiency in the lower limbs, enabled him to 
perform many feats of wonderful dexterity, where 
trees or ropes were in question, or any thing else 
to climb. At such exercises he certainly much more 
resembled a squirrel, or a small monkey, ‘than a 
frog. , | | 
I am not able to say, with precision, from what 
country Hop-Frog originally came. It wag from 
some barbarous region, however, that no person 
over heard of—a vast distance from the court of 
our king. © | | 
Hop-Frog, and a young girl very little less 
dwarfish than himself (although of exquisite pro- 
portions, and. a' marvellous dancer), ‘had been 
forcibly carried off from their respective homes in 
adjoining provinces, and sent as presents to the 
king, by one of his ever-victorious generals. = 
Under these ‘circumstances, it is not to be 
wondered at that a close intimacy arose between 
the two little captives. Indeed, they soon became 
sworn friends. 
Hop-Frog, who although he made a great deal of 
sport, was by no means popular, had it not in his 
power to render Trippetta many services; but she, 
1 
8 
- 
einem 
die 2 
Trost 
seines 
Kopfe 
eine | 
Ab: 
seine: 
keit «| 
bewe: 
kraft 
haber 
zulän 
stück 
Bäun 
ander 
er’ Si 
klein 
Ick 
welcl 
anus i 
kein 
dem 
Hop] 
weni 
erles 
Tänz 
treff 
dem 
imm 
U; 
daß 
klei: 
bald 
Hor 
auf 
sein 
——