"I don't see how he spears 'em like that," thought Reddy Woodpecker, "with nothing but air behind them." Mr. Frog's knack was so unusual that at last Reddy Woodpecker couldn't keep silent any longer.
So he called to Mr. Frog, "How do you do——"
"I'm very well, thank you!" cried Ferdinand Frog instantly. "How are you?"
Reddy Woodpecker had to explain that Mr. Frog hadn't understood him.
"What I was going to ask you," he said, "was not 'How do you do?' It was 'How do you do that?'"
"That what?" Ferdinand Frog inquired.
"How do you spear flies with your tongue when they're in the air?" Reddy Woodpecker asked. "I can spear grubs and things with my tongue when they're on a tree. And I can catch flies in my mouth when I'm flying. But I've never learned your trick."
"I don't spear flies," said Mr. Frog.
Of course Reddy Woodpecker thought that Mr. Frog had told a whopper. Hadn't he been watching him?
"I don't spear flies with my tongue," Ferdinand Frog went on. "My tongue is sticky. When it touches a fly, he's caught. It's very simple."