So the children ran back to the riverside and pulled their letter and number out of the water, and placing them on their heads, marched back to the pool.
"Place the letter on my back and the number on that, and then get on yourselves."
"Isn't that a very heavy load for you?" asked Iona, who believed in kindness to animals.
"Chug! No," exclaimed the frog, "I shall probably forget you are there."
"Please don't," said Iona, "because we can't swim." She believed also in kindness to children and she hoped the frog did.
But the frog began chug-chugging as if he were impatient to be gone, so the children jumped aboard laughing, and off they went, the frog making the water foam with the strokes of his long, strong legs.
The pool had looked to them like a circular small pond, but the frog swam to a narrow opening in the tall rushes, and although these nearly brushed the children off for some way, the water widened out again.
It was a long journey. Three times they twisted and turned through narrow openings, but at last they came into a pretty stream that flowed between flowery, tree-shaded banks, and imagine the children's joy when they saw hundreds of the fragrant orange-colored flowers, growing in profusion.
"O, we must be very near," cried Pierre.
"Chug! chug! we are," said the frog, "and I have made up my mind to let the fishes take you back. I found I couldn't forget you were there."