Long ago in a small pond, Franky, the green frog lived with his mother. He was a happy little frog and his mother loved him very much. But he was a little green rebel who never obeyed her.

One morning his mother said, “Please go catch some flies for dinner tonight.” Instead, he left home to play in the river with Todd, the turtle.

“Honey, will you please go to the market for me?” his mother asked. “I need some lily pad flour to make biscuits.”

“No!” he cried, disrespectfully. Instead, he went out to the riverbank, rolled in the wet mud and covered his small green body with sticky black mud.

On a hot June day, while babysitting the frog family’s new tadpoles, he took the little ones out to the riverbank to play, even though his mother had asked him to stay with them in the pond while she was away.

And so it went, time and again – Franky never followed his mother’s requests. Of course, Franky’s mother became very worried about his behavior. But no matter how hard she tried to teach him to be well behaved, it was to no avail.

As the years went by, Franky grew into a handsome, strong, young bullfrog, while his mother was becoming older and weaker. Sadly, his disobedient attitude was still the same.

Eventually, his mother became very sick and called him to her side to make one last request. “Please bury my body by the riverbank when I die,” she pleaded. She deliberately asked him to do so because she was certain that he would refuse to follow her instruction and do the opposite. It was her hope to be buried on the sunny side on the mountain plateau.

Franky was very sad when his mother finally passed away. He deeply regretted that he never obeyed her and had not listened to her advice while she was alive.

So, for once, he decided to grant her wish – he buried her by the riverbank! When it rained, he worried constantly that the water would rise and the river would overflow its bank.

Alas! One summer day during monsoon season, heavy rainfall lasted for several days and washed his mother’s grave away. Poor Franky sat in the pouring rain by the riverbank, and cried and cried.

And that’s why, to this day, frogs croak when it rains.

The moral of the story is to teach children to obey and respect their parents before it’s too late. In Korea, parents playfully tease disobedient children by calling them “green frogs.”