"Well, when the girls ran away from the boy, he started for the woman. She was so busy with the hose that for a moment she did not realize what he was up to. Then, seeing him spring toward her with me in his hand, she, too, started to run and cried out, 'Don't you put that toad on me! Don't you dare do such a thing!'
"She ran toward the house, but was so excited her foot caught in the hose, and down she fell. The end of the hose with the nozzle flopped around and sprayed all over her as she lay on the ground. The boy, thinking she might be hurt, dropped me and ran to help her up. But the woman, thinking he still had me in his hand, cried, 'Go away, go away, you dreadful boy! If you put that toad on me, I'll paddle you well!' Finally he made her understand he had dropped me and was trying to help her to her feet. My, but she was a sight when she got up! Her hair, like wet strings, hung straight down her back. The water ran in little streams down her face and dropped from her nose and chin. Her clothes were as wet as though she had fallen in the river. Of course she had to go in at once and change them.
"After it was all over the young ladies came out on the porch and laughed and laughed until the tears rolled down their cheeks. The boy laughed, too, but he lay down and rolled over on the wet grass and laughed as though he'd never stop. No one seemed a bit cross about it. Even the woman, after she had changed her wet clothes for dry ones, had to smile when she saw the boy and the girls laughing so heartily. At first I couldn't see the joke. But finally I saw they were not laughing at me, as I supposed, but at the woman who got drenched so thoroughly. When I saw through the joke, I just hopped in among the flowers where I would not be noticed, and I, too, had the best laugh of my lifetime. Now, as I look back, I think it was the very funniest thing I ever saw happen. And just think, I was the cause of it all! Or perhaps I had better say the boy and I together made it all happen. If some women I've met had got such a ducking, there would have been a regular neighborhood row over it. But it didn't seem to make any difference between those two families. If anything, they seemed to think all the more of each other.
"I tell you, I liked that home, but there were no other toads near and so I was often lonely. I do so enjoy company and a good friendly visit at times. Then the mischievous boy, while he never hurt me, kept me upset most of the time by carrying me around in his big, warm hand. I was always wishing he would let me alone just as the man in the cabbage patch did.
"Yesterday morning after a good night's sleep I was sitting among the flowers thinking of what I was going to have for breakfast, when your friend, the Lark, lit on a rose bush in the garden. He began to plume his feathers and look about him. Finally he spied me down in between two tall plants. 'Good morning!' he said, 'aren't you lonely in this flower garden?'
"Good morning," said the Lark, "aren't you lonely in this flower garden?"
"I told him I was very lonely at times, especially when the boy over the way was not around. Then I told him how I came there, what kind of folks lived there, and about the boy who so frightened me at times. 'Why don't you go and live at the Frog Pond?' he said. 'What Frog Pond?' I asked. He then told me all about this beautiful place in Rainbow Valley. And when he said there were no boys here, I wanted to start right off. He told me he had been sent to tell about the place and to invite frogs to come here. Perhaps he thought I didn't look just like a frog, so that was why he said it. I told him I was first cousin to the frogs. Then he said he was sure it was all right for me to come.