THE BIGGEST FROG AWAKENS
The Biggest Frog stretched the four toes of his right forefoot. Then hestretched the four toes of his left forefoot. Next he stretched the fivetoes of his right hindfoot. And last of all he stretched the four toesof his left hindfoot. Then he stretched all seventeen toes at once. Heshould have had eighteen toes to stretch, like his friends andneighbors, but something had happened to the eighteenth one a great manyyears before. None of the pond people knew what had happened to it, but_something_ had, and when the Tadpoles teased him to tell them what, heonly stared at them with his great eyes and said, "My children, thatstory is too sad to tell."
After the Biggest Frog had stretched all his toes, he stretched his legsand twitched his lips. He poked his head out of the mud a very, verylittle way, and saw a Minnow swimming past. "Good day!" said he. "Is ittime to get up?"
"Time!" exclaimed the Minnow, looking at him with her mouth open. "Ishould say it was. Why, the watercress is growing!"
Now every one who lives in a pond knows that when the watercress beginsto grow, it is time for all the winter sleepers to awaken. The BiggestFrog crawled out of the mud and poked this way and that all around thespot where he had spent the cold weather. "Wake up!" he said. "Wake up!Wake up!" The water grew dark and cloudy because he kicked up so muchmud, but when it began to clear again he saw the heads of his friendspeeping up everywhere out of that part of the pond bottom. Seven of themhad huddled close to him all winter. "Come out!" he cried. "The springis here, and it is no time for Frogs to be asleep."
"Asleep! No indeed!" exclaimed his sister, an elderly and hard-workingFrog, as she swam to the shore and crawled out on it. She ate every bitof food that she found on the way, for neither she nor any of the othershad taken a mouthful since the fall before.
The younger Frogs followed through the warmer shallow water until theywere partly out of it. There is always a Biggest Frog in every pond. Allthe young Frogs thought how fine it would be to become the Biggest Frogof even a very small puddle, for then they could tell the others what todo. Now they looked at their leader and each said to himself, "Perhapssome day I shall begin the concert."
The Biggest Frog found a comfortable place and sat down. He toed in withhis eight front toes, as well-bred frogs do, and all his friends toedin with their eight front toes. He toed out with his nine back toes, andall his friends toed out with their ten back toes. One young YellowBrown Frog said, "How I wish I did not have that bothersome fifth toe onmy left hindfoot! It is so in the way! Besides, there is such a styleabout having one's hind feet different." He spoke just loud enough forthe Biggest Frog to hear. Any one would know from this remark that hewas young and foolish, for when people are wise they know that the mostbeautiful feet and ears and bodies are just the way that they were firstmade to be.
Now the Biggest Frog swallowed a great deal of air, filled the sacs oneach side of his neck with it, opened his big mouth, and sang croakily,"Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs!" And all theothers sang, "Frogs! Frogs! Frogs!" as long as he. The Gulls heard it,and the Muskrats heard it, and all were happy because spring had come.
A beautiful young Green Brown Frog, who had never felt grown-up untilnow, tried to sing with the others, but she had not a strong voice, andwas glad enough to stop and visit with the Biggest Frog's Sister. "Don'tyou wish we could sing as loudly as they can?" said she.
"No," answered the Biggest Frog's Sister. "I would rather sit on thebank and think about my spring work. Work first, you know, and pleasureafterward!"
"Oh!" said the Green Brown Frog. "Then you don't want to sing until yourwork is done?"
"You may be very sure I don't want to sing then," answered the olderFrog. "I am too tired. Besides, after the eggs are laid, there is noreason for wanting to sing."
"Why not?" asked the Green Brown Frog. "I don't see what differencethat makes."
"That," said the older Frog wisely, "is because you are young and havenever laid eggs. The great time for singing is before the eggs are laid.There is some singing afterward, but that is only because people expectit of us, and not because we have the same wish to sing." After she hadsaid all this, which was a great deal for a Frog to say at once, sheshut her big mouth and slid her eyelids over her eyes.
There was another question which the Green Brown Frog wanted very muchto ask, but she had good manners and knew that it was impolite to speakto any Frog whose eyes were not open. So she closed her own eyes andtried to think what the answer would be. When she opened them again, theBiggest Frog's Sister had hopped away, and in her place sat the YellowBrown Frog, the same handsome young fellow who had found one of histoes in the way. It quite startled her to find him sitting so close toher and she couldn't think of anything to say, so she just looked at himwith her great beautiful eyes and toed in a little more with her frontfeet. That made him look at them and see how pretty they were, althoughof course this was not the reason why she had moved them.
The Yellow Brown Frog hopped a little nearer and sang as loudly as hecould, "Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs!" Thenshe knew that he was singing just for her, and she was exceedinglyhappy. She swallowed air very fast because she seemed to be out ofbreath from thinking what she should answer. She had wanted to ask theBiggest Frog's Sister what she should say if any one sang to her alone.She knew that if she wanted to get away from him, all she had to do wasto give a great jump and splash into the water. She didn't want to goaway, yet she made believe that she did, for she hopped a little fartherfrom him.
He knew she was only pretending, though, for she hadn't hopped more thanthe length of a grass-blade. So he followed her and kept on singing.Because she knew that she must say something, she just opened her mouthand sang the first words that she could think of; and what she sang was,"Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!" As it happened, thiswas exactly what she should have sung, so he knew that she liked him.They stayed together for a long, long time, and he sang a great deal andvery loudly, and she sang a little and very softly.
After a while she remembered that she was now a fully grown Frog and hadspring work to do, and she said to him, "I really must lay some eggs.I am going into the water."
"Then I will go too," said he. And they gave two great leaps and camedown with two great splashes.
"THEN I WILL GO TOO," SAID HE. _Page 9_]
The Green Brown Frog laid eggs for four days, and the Yellow Brown Frogstayed with her all that time and took care of the eggs after she hadlaid them. They were covered with a sort of green jelly which made themstick to each other as they floated in little heaps on the water. TheFrogs thought that a good thing, for then, when the Tadpoles hatched,each would have playmates near.
One day, after the eggs were all laid and were growing finely (forFrogs' eggs grow until the Tadpoles are ready to eat their way out), theGreen Brown Frog sat alone on the bank of the pond and the BiggestFrog's Sister came to her. She had a queer smile around the corners ofher mouth. Frogs have excellent mouths for smiling, but it takes a verybroad smile to go way across, so when they smile a little it is only atthe corners. "How are your eggs growing?" she asked.
"Oh," answered the Green Brown Frog sadly, "I can't tell which ones theyare."
"That's just like a young Frog," said the Biggest Frog's Sister. "Isthere any reason why you should know which ones they are? It isn't asthough you were a bird and had to keep them warm, or as though you werea Mink and had to feed your children. The sun will hatch them and theywill feed themselves all they need."
"I think," said the Green Brown Frog, "that my eggs were a little betterthan the rest."
"Yes," croaked the Biggest Frog's Sister, "every Frog thinks that."
"And I wanted to have my own Tadpoles to look after," sighed the GreenBrown Frog.
"Why?" asked the Biggest Frog's Sister. "Can't you take any comfort witha Tadpole unless you laid the egg from which he was hatched? I neverknow one of my own eggs a day after it is laid. T
here are such a lotfloating around that they are sure to get mixed. But I just make thebest of it."
"How?" asked the Green Brown Frog, looking a little more cheerful.
"Oh, I swim around and look at all the eggs, and whenever I see anyTadpoles moving in them I think, 'Those may be mine!' As they arehatched I help any one who needs it. Poor sort of Frog it would be whocouldn't like other people's Tadpoles!"
"I believe I'll do that way," said the Green Brown Frog. "And then," sheadded, "what a comfort it will be if any of them are cross or rude, tothink, 'I'm glad I don't know that they are mine.'"
"Yes," said the Biggest Frog's Sister. "I often tell my brother that Ipity people who have to bring up their own children. It is muchpleasanter to let them grow up as they do and then adopt the best ones.Do you know, I have almost decided that you are my daughter? My brothersaid this morning that he thought you looked like me."