The Deaf Frog

Long ago there was a well that was a towering cylinder of slick stone. On the top of the well there was a jagged rim that seemed to touch the clouds. For the colony of frogs living in the damp darkness at the bottom, the rim was the ‘Great Beyond’ - and that was a place of sunlight and dragonflies that many spoke of. 

But none of the frogs of the well had seen it. 

One day, a group of young frogs decided they had spent enough of their lives in the shadows. 

They announced a competition - the first frog to reach the top of the well would be crowned as the King of the Marshlands.

A massive crowd of frogs gathered at the base to watch. 

As the competitors took their first leaps onto the slippery walls, the crowd realized the problem.

"It’s too high," croaked a frog, shaking his head. "Look at the slime on the stones."

“It is not doable.” Another frog agreed. 

"They don’t have the strength.”

As the climb began, the frogs leaped with fervor. But the walls were slippery. For every few inches of progress the frogs were met with a slip. 

One by one, the competing frogs began to tire.

The crowd’s voices grew louder as every frog gave up. 

"Give up!" 

"You will hurt yourselves!” 

Under the weight of these words, the frogs began to falter. 

One frog, hearing the cries of his friends, looked down and lost his footing. He tumbled back into the mud. 

Another frog listened to the warnings about the heat of the sun at the top. He grew fearful and stopped midway.

Soon, only two frogs remained. One was a large, muscular bullfrog and the other was a tiny, unassuming green frog with bright, inquisitive eyes.

The crowd intensified their shouting. "Save yourselves!"

The bullfrog, hearing the logic in their screams felt the burn in his muscles, 

He looked at the stone walls and let go. He fell through the air, landing with a heavy splash in the pool below.

But the tiny frog? 

The tiny frog kept jumping.

He did not look down. He did not even look at the crowd. Every time he slipped, he simply found a new grip. 

When the crowd yelled, ‘You'll never make it!’ he seemed to jump with even more vigor. 

When they screamed, ‘It’s too dangerous!’ he climbed faster.

The onlookers were baffled. Was the little frog mocking them? 

Finally, with one last leap, the tiny frog’s feet hooked over the rim of the well. He pulled himself up into the blinding gold of the afternoon sun. 

He had found the light.

Hours later, after the tiny frog had explored the wonders of the upper world, he hopped back down to the well’s edge to see his friends.

When he eventually returned to the bottom, the colony crowded around him and they looked at him with awe.

"How did you do it?"

"How did you find the strength when everyone told you it couldn't be done?"

The tiny frog did not say a word.

It was then that the little frog’s mother stepped forward "My son cannot hear you. He has been deaf since the day he was spawned."

The realization hit the colony like a physical blow. 

The little frog had not been brave. He had simply been unable to hear their doubt. 

Every time they had screamed that he would fail, he thought they were cheering him on. He had interpreted their waving as gestures of encouragement.

That was how he had managed to reach the top.

-From Folklore from around the World