Saturday Rave: Puddocky.

Poor stupid Puddocky. After she nags her mother into stealing some parsley from a witch's garden (what utter fools the pair of them were!) the witch insists that Puddocky comes to live with her (why? The girl's a plainly a self-centred idiot); as if that's not bad enough, after Puddocky's beauty has set off some highly anti-social behaviour in three passing princes, the witch turns Puddocky into a puddock, which is a toad.

A bit of a set-back, that, especially in the fairy-tale heroine game, where even a case of mild dandruff is enough to threaten one's right to a Happy Ending.

But, hey, in the end...

But no, it would be mean to tell you what happens. It is a fairy-tale ending, though.

The Brothers Grimm first wrote this story down. There was another, much prettier, version by Madame d'Aulnoy which had Puddocky turned into a cat, but I like the toad version better. Cats are self-centred enough as it is, and I don't think Puddocky would have learned her lesson.

Word To Use Today: puddock. Nowadays this word is usually a Scottish form of paddock, but it does mean toad, too.

The rarer of the two British toads, the Natterjack, is Bufo calamita.

I would imagine Puddocky thought that very appropriate.