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.