Mother West Wind's ChildrenBurgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
General
Mother West Wind's Children
Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
Animals -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories, American
Straight across the Smiling Pool swam Billy Mink toward the big green
lily pad where Grandfather Frog sat dreaming of the days when the world
was young. When he was right under the big green lily pad he suddenly
kicked up hard with his hind feet. Up went the big green lily pad,
and, of course, up went Grandfather Frog--up and over flat on his back,
with a great splash into the Smiling Pool!
Now, Grandfather Frog's mouth is very big. Indeed, no one else has so
big a mouth, unless it be his cousin, old Mr. Toad. And when
Grandfather Frog went over flat on his back, splash in the Smiling
Pool, his mouth was wide open.
You see he was so surprised he forgot to close it. So, of course,
Grandfather Frog swallowed a great deal of water, and he choked and
spluttered and swam around in foolish little circles trying to find
himself. Finally he climbed out on his big green lily pad.
[Illustration: He was so surprised he forgot to close it.]
"Chug-a-rum?" said Grandfather Frog, and looked this way and looked
that way. Then he gave a funny hop and turned about in the opposite
direction and looked this way and looked that way, but all he saw was
the Smiling Pool dimpling and smiling, Mrs. Redwing bringing a fat worm
to her hungry little babies in their snug nest in the bulrushes, and
the Merry Little Breezes hurrying over to see what the trouble might be.
"Chug-a-rum!" said Grandfather Frog. "It is very strange. I must have
fallen asleep and had a bad dream."
Then he once more settled himself comfortably on the big green lily
pad, folded his hands across his white and yellow waistcoat, and seemed
to be dreaming again, only his big goggly eyes were not dreaming. No,
indeed! They were very much awake, and they saw all that was going on
in the Smiling Pool. Great-Grandfather Frog was just pretending. You
may fool him once, but Grandfather Frog has lived so long that he has
become very wise, and though Billy Mink is very smart, it takes some
one a great deal smarter than Billy Mink to fool Grandfather Frog twice
in the same way.
Billy Mink, hiding behind the Big Rock, had laughed and laughed till he
had to hold his sides when Grandfather Frog had choked and spluttered
and hopped about on the big lily pad trying to find out what it all
meant. He thought it such a good joke that he couldn't keep it to
himself, so when he saw Little Joe Otter coming to try his slippery
slide he swam across to tell him all about it. Little Joe Otter
laughed and laughed until he had to hold his sides. Then they both
swam back to hide behind the Big Rock to watch until Grandfather Frog
should forget all about it, and they could play the trick over again.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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