Translation:The girl with a turned up nose/Chapter 4

by Monteiro Lobato

AFTER THE PARTY

The next day, Narizinho and Emilia got up late and had lunch in bed, served by bee maids, who looked very pretty in their stocking caps. They were still nervous from the big scare the day before. Doctor Snail prescribed Biotonico and recommended walks in the countryside. Narizinho, after taking the medicine, went out with Mrs. Spider and strolled around the palace gardens for a good hour, while the attas were trying on Emilia's dresses. The girl asked for news of the prince. She was told that he had left for the frontiers to organize the defense against the invasion of other monsters. Narizinho sighed with longing and said:

— I'm going to confess my big secret to you, my spider friend. Ever since yesterday, I've been in love with the prince... She said and blushed. The spider smiled and replied:

— And he very much deserves your love, because there isn't a prince in the whole world worth more than him. My wish is that you two get married, because otherwise the prince might fall in love with a cockroach and the kingdom would suffer the shame of being ruled by a queen who loses her shell now and then...

And so, chatting, the two of them walked along the very clean and tidy avenues of the garden. Every morning, the ants ran all over the park, picking up all the little spikes, trimming the lawns and making everything look top-notch. There was a pond at the edge of which they stopped, gazing into the liquid mirror. They were both deep in thought: Narizinho missing her prince and Spider missing her sixty daughters eaten by Master Frog. Then they heard a moan some distance away. They approached. It was Master Grab, who was moaning with a huge belly full of pebbles.

— Alas, he cried, I can't even walk! Little girl with the golden hair, take pity on this poor frog and ask the prince to forgive me!...

Narizinho had a good heart and, sympathizing with the unfortunate animal's misery, she promised to intervene on his behalf.

— Look, she said to Spider, this poor fellow is paying for the crime of being a sleeper. He was punished just because he couldn't resist falling asleep at work...

— It's well deserved," replied the spider. Who told him to eat my sixty daughters?

— So, said Narizinho, here in this kingdom, one attacking another is like that, and you can kill and swallow?

— That's right, my child, just like among men, who are vultures eating the flesh of corpses.

Narizinho was very surprised at the way the animals saw humanity and wanted to refute the spider. But she couldn't because the spider interrupted her by saying:

- Yes, they are vultures, and they eat animal carcasses. I used to have my web in a butcher's shop in the city and every night I would see a wagon full of skinned oxen, sheep and pigs arrive, which a man called a butcher, all smeared with blood, would sell to the maids, who would take their baskets.

Narizinho didn't answer back, because she knew it was true...

Then drums and clarions sounded in the distance. It was the prince returning, leading a guard of crickets. Narizinho's heart beat fast.

— Hail! said the prince as soon as he saw the girl. Hail to the lady of my heart!

— If I am the lady of your heart, she replied, I want to ask you for a grace...

— Command and it will be obeyed, said the prince.

— I want Master Grab's forgiveness," said Narizinho, "who is groaning with the five hundred stones in his belly."

The prince granted her request and ordered that Doctor Snail be called to extract the stones. The doctor came with his surgeon's bag. He examined the overstuffed frog, palpated it, raised his glasses to his forehead and said:

— I need to open his stomach.

— So open it, ordered the prince.

Doctor Snail rolled up his sleeves, put on his apron and, helped by several ants, began the operation. The frog was placed on its back, with its belly in the air, and the ants, with their sharp stings, opened a hole in it. Then they entered through the opening and took out the five hundred pebbles of punishment one by one. When the last one came out, Master Grab let out a great sigh of relief. Once the stones had been gathered and the inside cleaned, the doctor set about sewing up the cut. To do this, he joined the edges of the belly and had the ants sting them there, so that each sting was a stitch. And so he made three stitches, leaving three ants clinging to the frog's belly. Then the doctor took a pair of scissors and guillotined the ants so that only the heads of the poor things remained in the frog's skin.

Master Grab thanked the doctor for his service and, in order not to waste any time, went on to eat the bodies of the three beheaded ants that lay on the ground in dispair. Master Grab never missed his chance!

Once this curious operation was over, Narizinho continued her walk with Mrs. Spider, and later went home very pleased with herself for having saved the life of a poor creature of God who had been condemned to a painful ordeal for the simple fact of being a sleeper.

— Friend Spider," she said, "the prince has forgiven the poor frog. Do you forgive him too?

— Never! replied the spider. I can't ever forget my children...