The Biggest Frog stretched the four toes of his right forefoot. Then he
stretched the four toes of his left forefoot. Next he stretched the five
toes of his right hindfoot. And last of all he stretched the four toes
of his left hindfoot. Then he stretched all seventeen toes at once. He
should have had eighteen toes to stretch, like his friends and
neighbors, but something had happened to the eighteenth one a great many
years 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, he
only stared at them with his great eyes and said, "My children, that
story is too sad to tell."
After the Biggest Frog had stretched all his toes, he stretched his legs
and twitched his lips. He poked his head out of the mud a very, very
little way, and saw a Minnow swimming past. "Good day!" said he. "Is it
time to get up?"
"Time!" exclaimed the Minnow, looking at him with her mouth open. "I
should say it was. Why, the watercress is growing!"
Now every one who lives in a pond knows that when the watercress begins
to grow, it is time for all the winter sleepers to awaken. The Biggest
Frog crawled out of the mud and poked this way and that all around the
spot 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 much
mud, but when it began to clear again he saw the heads of his friends
peeping up everywhere out of that part of the pond bottom. Seven of them
had huddled close to him all winter. "Come out!" he cried. "The spring
is here, and it is no time for Frogs to be asleep."
"Asleep! No indeed!" exclaimed his sister, an elderly and hard-working
Frog, as she swam to the shore and crawled out on it. She ate every bit
of food that she found on the way, for neither she nor any of the others
had taken a mouthful since the fall before.
The younger Frogs followed through the warmer shallow water until they
were partly out of it. There is always a Biggest Frog in every pond. All
the young Frogs thought how fine it would be to become the Biggest Frog
of even a very small puddle, for then they could tell the others what to
do. Now they looked at their leader and each said to himself, "Perhaps
some day I shall begin the concert."
The Biggest Frog found a comfortable place and sat down. He toed in with
his eight front toes, as well-bred frogs do, and all his friends toed
in with their eight front toes. He toed out with his nine back toes, and
all his friends toed out with their ten back toes. One young Yellow
Brown Frog said, "How I wish I did not have that bothersome fifth toe on
my left hindfoot! It is so in the way! Besides, there is such a style
about having one's hind feet different." He spoke just loud enough for
the Biggest Frog to hear. Any one would know from this remark that he
was young and foolish, for when people are wise they know that the most
beautiful feet and ears and bodies are just the way that they were first
made to be.
Now the Biggest Frog swallowed a great deal of air, filled the sacs on
each side of his neck with it, opened his big mouth, and sang croakily,
"Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs!" And all the
others 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 until
now, tried to sing with the others, but she had not a strong voice, and
was glad enough to stop and visit with the Biggest Frog's Sister. "Don't
you wish we could sing as loudly as they can?" said she.
"No," answered the Biggest Frog's Sister. "I would rather sit on the
bank and think about my spring work. Work first, you know, and pleasure
afterward!"
"Oh!" said the Green Brown Frog. "Then you don't want to sing until your
work is done?"
"You may be very sure I don't want to sing then," answered the older
Frog. "I am too tired. Besides, after the eggs are laid, there is no
reason for wanting to sing."
"Why not?" asked the Green Brown Frog. "I don't see what difference
that makes."
"That," said the older Frog wisely, "is because you are young and have
never laid eggs. The great time for singing is before the eggs are laid.
There is some singing afterward, but that is only because people expect
it of us, and not because we have the same wish to sing." After she had
said all this, which was a great deal for a Frog to say at once, she
shut her big mouth and slid her eyelids over her eyes.
There was another question which the Green Brown Frog wanted very much
to ask, but she had good manners and knew that it was impolite to speak
to any Frog whose eyes were not open. So she closed her own eyes and
tried to think what the answer would be. When she opened them again, the
Biggest Frog's Sister had hopped away, and in her place sat the Yellow
Brown Frog, the same handsome young fellow who had found one of his
toes in the way. It quite startled her to find him sitting so close to
her and she couldn't think of anything to say, so she just looked at him
with her great beautiful eyes and toed in a little more with her front
feet. That made him look at them and see how pretty they were, although
of course this was not the reason why she had moved them.
The Yellow Brown Frog hopped a little nearer and sang as loudly as he
could, "Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs! Frogs!" Then
she knew that he was singing just for her, and she was exceedingly
happy. She swallowed air very fast because she seemed to be out of
breath from thinking what she should answer. She had wanted to ask the
Biggest 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 was
to give a great jump and splash into the water. She didn't want to go
away, yet she made believe that she did, for she hopped a little farther
from him.
He knew she was only pretending, though, for she hadn't hopped more than
the 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 mouth
and 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, this
was 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 and
very loudly, and she sang a little and very softly.
After a while she remembered that she was now a fully grown Frog and had
spring 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 came
down with two great splashes.
[Illustration: "THEN I WILL GO TOO," SAID HE. _Page 9_]
The Green Brown Frog laid eggs for four days, and the Yellow Brown Frog
stayed with her all that time and took care of the eggs after she had
laid them. They were covered with a sort of green jelly which made them
stick to each other as they floated in little heaps on the water. The
Frogs 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 (for
Frogs' eggs grow until the Tadpoles are ready to eat their way out), the
Green Brown Frog sat alone on the bank of the pond and the Biggest
Frog's Sister came to her. She had a queer smile around the corners of
her mouth. Frogs have excellent mouths for smiling, but it takes a very
broad smile to go way across, so when they smile a little it is only at
the corners. "How are your eggs growing?" she asked.
"Oh," answered the Green Brown Frog sadly, "I can't tell which ones they
are."
"That's just like a young Frog," said the Biggest Frog's Sister. "Is
there any reason why you should know which ones they are? It isn't as
though you were a bird and had to keep them warm, or as though you were
a Mink and had to feed your children. The sun will hatch them and they
will feed themselves all they need."
"I think," said the Green Brown Frog, "that my eggs were a little better
than 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 Green
Brown Frog.
"Why?" asked the Biggest Frog's Sister. "Can't you take any comfort with
a Tadpole unless you laid the egg from which he was hatched? I never
know one of my own eggs a day after it is laid. There are such a lot
floating around that they are sure to get mixed. But I just make the
best 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 any
Tadpoles moving in them I think, 'Those may be mine!' As they are
hatched I help any one who needs it. Poor sort of Frog it would be who
couldn't like other people's Tadpoles!"
"I believe I'll do that way," said the Green Brown Frog. "And then," she
added, "what a comfort it will be if any of them are cross or rude, to
think, 'I'm glad I don't know that they are mine.'"
"Yes," said the Biggest Frog's Sister. "I often tell my brother that I
pity people who have to bring up their own children. It is much
pleasanter 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 brother
said this morning that he thought you looked like me."