The Adventures of Grandfather Frog | Page 8

budge that
fish. He couldn't cough it up, because it had gone too far down for that.
The more he clawed at that waving tail with his hands, the funnier he

looked, and the harder Little Joe Otter and Billy Mink and Jerry
Muskrat laughed. They made such a noise that Spotty the Turtle, who
had been taking a sun-bath on the end of an old log, slipped into the
water and started to see what it was all about.
Now Spotty the Turtle is very, very slow on land, but he is a good
swimmer. He hurried now because he didn't want to miss the fun. At
first he didn't see Grandfather Frog.
"What's the joke?" he asked.
Little Joe Otter simply pointed to Grandfather Frog. Little Joe had
laughed so much that he couldn't even speak. Spotty looked over to the
big green lily-pad and started to laugh too. Then he saw great tears
rolling down from Grandfather Frog's eyes and heard little choky
sounds. He stopped laughing and started for Grandfather Frog as fast as
he could swim. He climbed right up on the big green lily-pad, and
reaching out, grabbed the end of the fish tail in his beak-like mouth.
Then Spotty the Turtle settled back and pulled, and Grandfather Frog
settled back and pulled. Splash! Grandfather Frog had fallen backward
into the Smiling Pool on one side of the big green lily-pad. Splash!
Spotty the Turtle had fallen backward into the Smiling Pool on the
opposite side of the big green lily-pad. And the fish which had caused
all the trouble lay floating on the water.
"Thank you! Thank you!" gasped Grandfather Frog, as he feebly
crawled back on the lily-pad. "A minute more, and I would have
choked to death."
"Don't mention it," replied Spotty the Turtle.
"I never, never will," promised Grandfather Frog.

IX
OLD MR. TOAD VISITS GRANDFATHER FROG

Grandfather Frog and old Mr. Toad are cousins. Of course you know
that without being told. Everybody does. But not everybody knows that
they were born in the same place. They were. Yes, Sir, they were. They
were born in the Smiling Pool. Both had long tails and for a while no
legs, and they played and swam together without ever going on shore.
In fact, when they were babies, they couldn't live out of the water. And
people who saw them didn't know the difference between them and
called them by the same names--tadpoles or pollywogs. But when they
grew old enough to have legs and get along without tails, they parted
company.
You see, it was this way: Grandfather Frog (of course he wasn't
grandfather then) loved the Smiling Pool so well that he couldn't think
of leaving it. He heard all about the Great World and what a wonderful
place it was, but he couldn't and wouldn't believe that there could be
any nicer place than the Smiling Pool, and so he made up his mind that
he would live there always.
But Mr. Toad could hardly wait to get rid of his tail before turning his
back on the Smiling Pool and starting out to see the Great World.
Nothing that Grandfather Frog could say would stop him, and away Mr.
Toad went, when he was so small that he could hide under a clover leaf.
Grandfather Frog didn't expect ever to see him again. But he did,
though it wasn't for a long, long time. And when he did come back, he
had grown so that Grandfather Frog hardly knew him at first. And right
then and there began a dispute which they have kept up ever since:
whether it was best to go out into the Great World or remain in the
home of childhood. Each was sure that what he had done was best, and
each is sure of it to this day.
So whenever old Mr. Toad visits Grandfather Frog, as he does every
once in a while, they are sure to argue and argue on this same old
subject. It was so on the day that Grandfather Frog had so nearly
choked to death. Old Mr. Toad had heard about it from one of the
Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind and right away had
started for the Smiling Pool to pay his respects to Grandfather Frog,
and to tell him how glad he was that Spotty the Turtle had come along

just in time to pull the fish out of Grandfather Frog's throat.
Now all day long Grandfather Frog had had to listen to unpleasant
remarks about his greediness. It was such a splendid chance to tease
him that everybody around the Smiling Pool took advantage of it.
Grandfather Frog took it good-naturedly at first, but after a while it
made him cross,