“I should think the Frogs like the Feast best. Don't they?”
“Well, there's generally very few of them that get any. They will keep
their mouths shut so tight! And it's just as well they do,” she added,
“because Bruno likes to cook it himself: and he cooks very queerly. Now
they're all in. Would you just help me to put them with their heads the
right way?”
We soon managed this part of the business, though the Frogs kept up a
most discontented croaking all the time.
“What are they saying?” I asked Sylvie.
“They're saying 'Fork! Fork!' It's very silly of them! You're not going
to have forks!” she announced with some severity. “Those that want any
Feast have just got to open their mouths, and Bruno 'll put some of it
in!”
At this moment Bruno appeared, wearing a little white apron to show that
he was a Cook, and carrying a tureen full of very queer-looking soup.
I watched very carefully as he moved about among the Frogs; but I could
not see that any of them opened their mouths to be fed--except one
very young one, and I'm nearly sure it did it accidentally, in yawning.
However Bruno instantly put a large spoonful of soup into its mouth, and
the poor little thing coughed violently for some time.
So Sylvie and I had to share the soup between us, and to pretend to
enjoy it, for it certainly was very queerly cooked.
I only ventured to take one spoonful of it (“Sylvie's Summer-Soup,”
Bruno said it was), and must candidly confess that it was not at all
nice; and I could not feel surprised that so many of the guests had kept
their mouths shut up tight.
“What's the soup made of, Bruno?” said Sylvie, who had put a spoonful of
it to her lips, and was making a wry face over it.
And Bruno's answer was anything but encouraging. “Bits of things!”
The entertainment was to conclude with “Bits of Shakespeare,” as Sylvie
expressed it, which were all to be done by Bruno, Sylvie being fully
engaged in making the Frogs keep their heads towards the stage: after
which Bruno was to appear in his real character, and tell them a Story
of his own invention.
“Will the Story have a Moral to it?” I asked Sylvie, while Bruno was
away behind the hedge, dressing for the first 'Bit.'
“I think so,” Sylvie replied doubtfully. “There generally is a Moral,
only he puts it in too soon.”
“And will he say all the Bits of Shakespeare?”
“No, he'll only act them,” said Sylvie. “He knows hardly any of the
words. When I see what he's dressed like, I've to tell the Frogs what
character it is. They're always in such a hurry to guess! Don't you
hear them all saying 'What? What?'” And so indeed they were: it had only
sounded like croaking, till Sylvie explained it, but I could now make
out the “Wawt? Wawt?” quite distinctly.
“But why do they try to guess it before they see it?”
“I don't know,” Sylvie said: “but they always do. Sometimes they begin
guessing weeks and weeks before the day!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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