Oksana lived with her stepmother and two stepsisters. Every day she swept the floors, cooked the porridge, and fed the geese. Her stepsisters wore pretty dresses while Oksana wore old grey clothes.

One evening Oksana went to fetch water from the pond. She heard a small voice: 'Please, will you help me? I am stuck in the mud.' She looked down and saw a little frog with a water-lily crown on its head.

Oksana gently lifted the frog out of the mud and set it on a dry stone. The frog shook itself clean and looked up with its big golden eyes. 'You have a kind heart,' the frog said. 'I will not forget this.'

The next week, the prince announced a great feast and invited all the families in the land. Oksana's stepsisters had beautiful new dresses to wear. Oksana had nothing — only her old grey dress and bare feet.

That evening, after the others had gone to the feast, Oksana sat by the pond alone. A warm green light glowed on the water. The little frog appeared. 'I have not forgotten,' said the frog. 'Close your eyes.'

Oksana closed her eyes. She felt warmth rush over her. When she opened them, she wore a dress of moonlight and wildflowers, and on her feet gleamed a pair of golden slippers. She gasped at their beauty.

Oksana walked to the prince's feast. When she entered the great hall, everyone turned to look. The prince himself saw her and could not look away. He came and asked her to dance.

They danced and talked all evening. The prince learned that Oksana was kind and clever, and she made him laugh. But when the clock struck midnight, Oksana remembered the frog's warning: she must leave before midnight.

Oksana ran out of the hall. In her hurry, one golden slipper fell off on the palace steps. The prince found it and searched the whole kingdom for the girl whose foot it fit. When he found Oksana at home in her grey dress, the slipper fit perfectly. He smiled and asked her to come with him — not for the dress or the dancing, but for the kind and clever girl he had met that night.