The pollywogg now leaves the water and spends a part ov hiz summers upon
land.
He haz tew fite hiz way through life, and generally goes on the jump.
Being better at diving than he iz at dodgeing, he often runs hiz hed
aginst sticks and stuns that the boys throw at him, but hiz two mortal
enemys are the frenchman and the striped snaik.
The frenchman iz satisfied with hiz hind leggs, but the snaik swallows
him whole.
I have seen sum good time made by the frog, and the snake, the snake
after the frog, and the frog after dear life.
If the frog kan only reach a tree, and klimb it, he iz safe, for a snake
kant travel a tree.
I don’t kno az the pollywogg gains ennything by swopping himself oph for
a frog, unless it iz experience, but i never hav bin able to diskover
much ov enny happiness in experience.
If experience ever made a man happy, i should hav happiness to sell, for
I am one ov them happy phellows who never found ennything (not even the
bite ov a lobster) only through the kindness of experience.
THE BULL HEAD.
This remarkable beast of prey dwells in mill ponds and mud puddles,
cluss to the ground, and lives upon young lizzards and dirt.
They hav no taste to their mouths, and never spit out ennything that
they kan swallo.
They have two ugly black thorns sticking out on the sides ov their hed,
and are az dangerous tew handle az a six-bladed penknife, with the
blades all open to onst.
They are like a kat, yu hav got to skin them before they are fit to eat,
and after they are thoroughly cooked, if yu set them away in the
cupboard until they git cold, they will begin life anew, and bekum az
raw az a live mule.
They will liv, after they are ded az long az striped snaik kan.
I don’t advise enny man to fish for bull heads, but if yu feel az tho yu
must, this iz the only best way to do it.
Take a dark, hot, drizzly night in the month ov june; steal out quietly
from home; tell yure folks yu are going tew the nabors to borry a
setting of hen’s eggs; find a saw log on the banks ov a stagnant
mill-pond, one end of which lays in the water; drive the mudturkles and
water snaiks oph from the log; straddle the log, and let yure leggs hang
down in the water up tew yure garters; bait yure hook with a chunk ov
old injun rubber shoe; az fasst az yu pull up the bull heads, take them
by the back ov the neck and stab their horns onto the saw log; when yu
hav got the saw log stuck full, shoulder the saw log, and leave for
home; git up the next morning early, skin the bull heds, and split up
the saw log into kindling wood, let yure wife cook them for brekfast,
and sware the whole family to keep dark about it.
This iz the only respektabel way to hav enneything to do with bull
heads.
MUDTURKLES.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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