One day a young Frog who lived down by the river, came hopping up
through the meadow. He was a fine-looking fellow, all brown and green,
with a white vest, and he came to see the sights. The oldest Frog on the
river bank had told him that he ought to travel and learn to know the
world, so he had started at once.
Young Mr. Green Frog had very big eyes, and they stuck out from his head
more than ever when he saw all the strange sights and heard all the
strange sounds of the meadow. Yet he made one great mistake, just as
bigger and better people sometimes do when they go on a journey; he
didn't try to learn from the things he saw, but only to show off to the
meadow people how much he already knew, and he boasted a great deal of
the fine way in which he lived when at home.
Mr. Green Frog told those whom he met that the meadow was dreadfully
dry, and that he really could not see how they lived there. He said they
ought to see the lovely soft mud that there was in the marsh, and that
there the people could sit all day with their feet in water in among the
rushes where the sunshine never came. "And then," he said, "to eat grass
as the Grasshoppers did! If they would go home with him, he would show
them how to live."
The older Grasshoppers and Crickets and Locusts only looked at each
other and opened their funny mouths in a smile, but the young ones
thought Mr. Green Frog must be right, and they wanted to go back with
him. The old Hoppers told them that they wouldn't like it down there,
and that they would be sorry that they had gone; still the young ones
teased and teased and teased and teased until everybody said: "Well, let
them go, and then perhaps they will be contented when they return."
At last they all set off together,--Mr. Green Frog and the young meadow
people. Mr. Green Frog took little jumps all the way and bragged and
bragged. The Grasshoppers went in long leaps, the Crickets scampered
most of the way, and the Locusts fluttered. It was a very gay little
party, and they kept saying to each other, "What a fine time we shall
have!"
When they got to the marsh, Mr. Green Frog went in first with a soft
"plunk" in the mud. The rest all followed and tried to make believe that
they liked it, but they didn't--they didn't at all. The Grasshoppers
kept bumping against the tough, hard rushes when they jumped, and then
that would tumble them over on their backs in the mud, and there they
would lie, kicking their legs in the air, until some friendly Cricket
pushed them over on their feet again. The Locusts couldn't fly at all
there, and the Crickets got their shiny black coats all grimy and
horrid.
They all got cold and wet and tired--yes, and hungry too, for there were
no tender green things growing in among the rushes. Still they pretended
to have a good time, even while they were thinking how they would like
to be in their dear old home.
After the sun went down in the west it grew colder still, and all the
Frogs in the marsh began to croak to the moon, croaking so loudly that
the tired little travellers could not sleep at all. When the Frogs
stopped croaking and went to sleep in the mud, one tired Cricket said:
"If you like this, _stay_. I am going home as fast as my six little legs
will carry me." And all the rest of the travellers said: "So am I," "So
am I," "So am I."
Mr. Green Frog was sleeping soundly, and they crept away as quietly as
they could out into the silvery moonlight and up the bank towards home.
Such a tired little party as they were, and so hungry that they had to
stop and eat every little while. The dew was on the grass and they could
not get warm.
The sun was just rising behind the eastern forest when they got home.
They did not want to tell about their trip at all, but just ate a lot
of pepper-grass to make them warm, and then rolled themselves in between
the woolly mullein leaves to rest all day long. And that was the last
time any of them ever went away with a stranger.
[Illustration]