“Ho! Ho!” thought Mary Frances. “So it’s a hop toad! I just believe it’s that big fellow that lives under the stepping stone. I think I’d know him. I believe I’ll peep!” She looked cautiously around the tree. “It is! It is that same fellow I really believe! My, I wish I could ask him some questions!” “Indeed, I do not mean anything of the kind, Mr. Feather Flop,” retorted the hop toad, and Mary Frances could see his throat swell with indignation. “I mean that I am actually and truly one of the most helpful living things to have in a garden.” “Now, now, don’t get angry,” begged Feather Flop, “I want to hear about that! I want to find out, Hoppy, how you are more beneficial to the garden than I am.” “Well,” answered the hop toad, blinking his eyes with a satisfied smile, “it’s this way: suppose I begin with the baby toads——” “A crow told me they taste very good,” interrupted Feather Flop. “For shame!” whispered Mary Frances. “Isn’t that awful of Feather Flop!” The rooster must have heard her, for he suddenly bowed his head, saying, “Oh, I beg your pardon, Hoppy—really I do! Please excuse me!” “I suppose you don’t know any better manners,” answered the hop toad, “so I’ll have to excuse you, and I’ll tell you—if you don’t interrupt— THE STORY OF THE HOP TOAD My mother told me that one lovely day early in May she awoke from her winter’s nap. Oh, yes, that’s what we do in winter—sleep in the ground. Well, my mother awoke, and went happily hopping down to the meadow pond to lay some eggs. Perhaps you don’t know them when you see them—toads’ eggs. They look like tiny black pills in strings of transparent jelly. This jelly either drops to the bottom of the pond or fastens to water weeds. TADPOLES The eggs grow larger and larger and pretty soon become baby toads, or tadpoles. Well, I was one of the tadpoles that spring, and my brothers and sisters and I soon ate some of the jelly, and then some of the delicious slime in the pond. Yes, we lived in the water and breathed somewhat the way fishes do. When we were about ten days old, our mouths grew much stronger and our jaws grew horny so that we could bite off pieces of plants. How lovely it was! I can remember now how cool and pleasant it felt to swim about in the pond. We had long flat tails which we used for swimming. Now, Feather Flop, if you interrupt again I shall not finish my story! No, we didn’t eat our tails; of course not. Our tails were absorbed into our bodies to help with their growth. When we were about an inch long we had but stump tails, and found we had to come to the surface of the water for more air every day, we decided we were no longer tadpoles, but real hop toads. We swam to the shore of the pond and hopped away. TOADS’ ENEMIES