ONCE upon a time a Galician was returning to Galicia after having spent some time in Seville. When he was close to his abode, he met some one who inquired where he was going.
“To my native place,” replied the Galician.,
“If Heaven will it,” answered the former.
“Whether Heaven wills it or no,” added the Galician to himself, already seeing his village from afar, and being only separated from its outskirts by a river.
Scarcely had he muttered the words ere he fell into the water and was changed into a frog.
In this condition the poor man lived for three years, being in continual danger from his spiteful foes, bad boys, leeches, and storks. At the end of three years another Galician returning home happened to pass by there; and a wayfarer chancing to ask him whither he was going, replied:—
“To my native place.”
“If Heaven will it,” croaked a frog that poked its head up out of the water.
And when it had said this, the frog, which was the first Galician, suddenly found itself once more a man.
He went on his way gayer than Easter, and having met with another traveller, who asked him whither he went, he answered him:—
“To my own place, if Heaven will it; to see my wife, if Heaven will it; to see my children, if Heaven will it; to see my cow, if Heaven will it; to sow my land, if Heaven will it; so that I may get a good harvest from it, if Heaven will it.”
And as he religiously added to everything, “if Heaven will it,” he was allowed to see his wishes accomplished. He found his wife and children well; his cow had a calf; he sowed his field, and reaped a good harvest because Heaven willed it.
