And he called to Farmer Green and suggested to him that he step out behind the barn and take a shot at the tail of the hippopotamus.
"Try your luck!" Mr. Frog coaxed. "It's plain to see that you need practice, or you'd have made Mr. Crow part with all his tail-feathers, instead of only one." And he laughed harder than ever.
But Farmer Green paid little heed to Ferdinand Frog's wheedling, although he did smile and say:
"I declare, I believe that bull frog's jeering at me because I missed the old crow!"
V
MR. FROG'S SECRET SORROW
Ferdinand Frog always looked so cheerful that no one ever suspected that he had a secret sorrow. But it is true, nevertheless, that something troubled him, though he took great pains not to let a single one of his neighbors know that anything grieved him.
His trouble was simply this: he had never been invited to attend the singing-parties which the Frog family held almost every evening in Cedar Swamp.
Now, Ferdinand Frog loved to sing at night.