It was a bright, warm April day when the First Tadpole of the season ate
his way out of the jelly-covered egg in which he had come to life. He
was a very tiny, dark brown fellow. It would be hard to tell just what
he did look like, for there is nothing in the world that one Tadpole
looks like unless it is another Tadpole. He had a very small head with a
busy little mouth opening on the front side of it: just above each end
of this mouth was a shining black eye, and on the lower side of his head
was a very wiggly tail. Somewhere between his head and the tip of this
were his small stomach and places for legs, but one could not see all
that in looking at him. It seemed as if what was not head was tail, and
what was not tail was head.
When the First Tadpole found himself free in the water, he swam along by
the great green floating jelly-mass of Frogs' eggs, and pressed his face
up close to first one egg and then another. He saw other Tadpoles almost
as large as he, and they were wriggling inside their egg homes. He
couldn't talk to them through the jelly-mass--he could only look at
them, and they looked greenish because he saw them through green jelly.
They were really dark brown, like him. He wanted them to come out to
play with him and he tried to show them that it was more interesting
where he was, so he opened and shut his hard little jaws very fast and
took big Tadpole-mouthfuls of green jelly.
Perhaps it was seeing this, and perhaps it was because the warm sunshine
made them restless--but for some reason the shut-in Tadpoles nibbled
busily at the egg-covering and before long were in the water with their
brother. They all looked alike, and nobody except that one particular
Tadpole knew who had been the first to hatch. He never forgot it, and
indeed why should he? If one has ever been the First Tadpole, he is
quite sure to remember the loneliness of it all his life.
Soon they dropped to the bottom of the pond and met their neighbors.
They were such little fellows that nobody paid much attention to them.
The older pond people often seemed to forget that the Tadpoles heard
what they said, and cared too. The Minnows swam in and out among them,
and hit them with their fins, and slapped them with their tails, and
called them "little-big-mouths," and the Tadpoles couldn't hit back
because they were so little. The Minnows didn't hurt the Tadpoles, but
they made fun of them, and even the smallest Minnow would swim away if
a Tadpole tried to play with him.
Then the Eels talked among themselves about them. "I shall be glad,"
said one old Father Eel, "when these youngsters hide their
breathing-gills and go to the top of the water."
"So shall I," exclaimed a Mother Eel. "They keep their tails wiggling so
that it hurts my eyes to look at them. Why can't they lie still and be
good?"
Now the Tadpoles looked at each other with their shining black eyes.
"What are our breathing-gills?" they asked. "They must be these little
things on the sides of our heads."
"They are!" cried the First Tadpole. "The Biggest Frog said so. But I
don't see where we can hide them, because they won't come off. And how
could we ever breathe water without them?"
"Hear the children talk," exclaimed the Green Brown Frog, who had come
down to look the Tadpoles over and decide which were hers. "Why, you
won't always want to breathe water. Before long you will have to breathe
air by swallowing it, and then you cannot stay long under water. I must
go now. I am quite out of breath. Good-bye!"
Then the Tadpoles looked again at each other. "She didn't tell us what
to do with our breathing-gills," they said. One of the Tadpoles who had
hatched last, swam up to the First Tadpole. "Your breathing-gills are
not so large as mine," she said.
"They surely are!" he exclaimed, for he felt very big indeed, having
been the first to hatch.
"Oh, but they are not!" cried all his friends. "They don't stick out as
they used to." And that was true, for his breathing-gills were sinking
into his head, and they found that this was happening to all the older
Tadpoles.
[Illustration: THE BIGGEST FROG TOLD THEM STORIES. _Page 63_]
The next day they began going to the top to breathe air, the oldest ones
first, and so on until they were all there. They thought it much
pleasanter than the bottom of the pond, but it was not so safe. There
were more dangers to be watched for here, and some of the careless young
Tadpoles never lived to be Frogs. It is sad, yet it is always so.
Sometimes the Frogs came to see them, and once--once, after the Tadpoles
had gotten their hindlegs, the Biggest Frog sat in the marsh near by and
told them stories of his Tadpolehood. He said that he was always a very
good little Tadpole, and always did as the Frogs told him to do; and
that he was such a promising little fellow that every Mother Frog in the
pond was sure that he had been hatched from one of her eggs.
"And were you?" asked one Tadpole, who never listened carefully, and so
was always asking stupid questions.
The Biggest Frog looked at him very sternly. "No," said he, "I was not.
Each wanted me as her son, but I never knew to which I belonged. I never
knew! Still," he added, "it does not so much matter who a Frog's mother
is, if the Frog is truly great." Then he filled the sacs on each side of
his neck with air, and croaked loudly. His sister afterward told the
Tadpoles that he was thinking of one of the forest people, the Ground
Hog, who was very proud because he could remember his grandfather.
The Green Brown Frog came often to look at them and see how they were
growing. She was very fond of the First Tadpole. "Why, you have your
forelegs!" she exclaimed one morning. "How you do grow!"
"What will I have next?" he asked, "more legs or another tail?"
The Green Brown Frog smiled the whole length of her mouth, and that was
a very broad smile indeed. "Look at me," she said. "What change must
come next to make you look like a Frog?"
"You haven't any tail," he said slowly. "Is that all the difference
between us Tadpoles and Frogs?"
"That is all the difference now," she answered, "but it will take a
long, long time for your tail to disappear. It will happen with that
quite as it did with your breathing-gills. You will grow bigger and
bigger and bigger, and it will grow smaller and smaller and smaller,
until some day you will find yourself a Frog." She shut her mouth to get
her breath, because, you know, Frogs can only breathe a little through
their skins, and then only when they are wet. Most of their air they
take in through their noses and swallow with their mouths closed. That
is why they cannot make long speeches. When their mouths are open they
cannot swallow air.
After a while she spoke again. "It takes as many years to make a newly
hatched Tadpole into a fully grown Frog," she said, "as there are toes
on one of your hindfeet."
The First Tadpole did not know what a year was, but he felt sure from
the way in which she spoke that it was a long, long time, and he was in
a hurry to grow up. "I want to be a Frog sooner!" he said, crossly. "It
isn't any fun at all being a Tadpole." The Green Brown Frog swam away,
he was becoming so disagreeable.
The First Tadpole became crosser and crosser, and was very unreasonable.
He did not think of the pleasant things which happened every day, but
only of the trying ones. He did not know that Frogs often wished
themselves Tadpoles again, and he sulked around in the pondweed all day.
Every time he looked at one of his hindfeet it reminded him of what the
Green Brown Frog had said, and he even grew out of patience with his
tail--the same strong wiggly little tail of which he had been so proud.
"Horrid old thing!" he said, giving it a jerk. "Won't I be glad to get
rid of you?" Then he thought of something--foolish, vain little First
Tadpole that he was. He thought and he thought and he thought and he
thought, and when his playmates swam around him he wouldn't chase them,
and when they asked him what was the matter, he just answered, "Oh
nothing!" as carelessly as could be.
The truth was that he wanted to be a Frog right away, and he thought he
knew how he could be. He didn't want to tell the other Tadpoles because
he didn't want any one else to become a Frog as soon as he. After a
while he swam off to see the Snapping Turtle. He was very much afraid of
the Snapping Turtle, and yet he thought him the best one to see just
now. "I came to see if you would snap off my tail," said he.
"Your what?" said the Snapping Turtle, in his most surprised way.
"My tail," answered the First Tadpole, who had never had a tail snapped
off, and thought it could be easily done. "I want to be a Frog to-day
and not wait."
"Certainly," said the Snapping Turtle. "With pleasure! No trouble at
all! Anything else I can do for you?"
"No, thank you," said the First Tadpole, "only you won't snap off too
much, will you?"
"Not a bit," answered the Snapping Turtle, with a queer look in his
eyes. "And if any of your friends are in a hurry to grow up, I shall be
glad to help them." Then he swam toward the First Tadpole and did as he
had been asked to do.
The next morning all the other Tadpoles crowded around to look at the
First Tadpole. "Why-ee!" they cried. "Where is your tail?"
"I don't know," he answered, "but I think the Snapping Turtle could
tell you."
"What is this?" asked the Green Brown Frog, swimming up to them. "Did
the Snapping Turtle try to catch you? You poor little fellow! How did it
happen?" She was very fond of the First Tadpole, and had about decided
that he must be one of her sons.
"Well," he said slowly, for he didn't want the other Tadpoles to do the
same thing, "I met him last evening and he--"
"Snapped at you!" exclaimed the Green Brown Frog. "It is lucky for you
that he doesn't believe in eating hearty suppers, that is all I have to
say! But you are a very foolish Tadpole not to keep out of his way, as
you have always been told you must."
Then the First Tadpole lost his temper. "I'm not foolish, and I'm not a
Tadpole," he said. "I asked him to snap it off, and now I am a Frog!"
"Oho!" said the voice of the Yellow Brown Frog behind him. "You are a
Frog, are you? Let's hear you croak then. Come out on the bank and have
a hopping match with me."
"I--I don't croak yet," stammered the First Tadpole, "a--and I don't
care to hop."
"You are just a tailless Tadpole," said the Yellow Brown Frog sternly.
"Don't any more of you youngsters try such a plan, or some of you will
be Tadpole-less tails and a good many of you won't be anything."
The old Snapping Turtle waited all morning for some more Tadpoles who
wanted to be made into Frogs, but none came. The Biggest Frog croaked
hoarsely when he heard of it. "Tails! Tails! Tails! Tails! Tails! Tails!
Tails! Tails!" said he. "That youngster will never be a strong Frog.
Tadpoles must be Tadpoles, tails and all, for a long time, if they hope
to ever be really fine Frogs like me." And that is so, as any Frog will
tell you.
The Green Brown Frog sighed as she crawled out on the bank. "What a
silly Tadpole," she said; "I'm glad he isn't my child!"