Bully Bull Frog and His Home in Rainbow Valley

by Elizabeth Stafford Fry

"Yes, it is," answered Grandfather Bull Frog.

"I think," said the stranger, "I will take it for my home. You can find a place for yourself somewhere else."

Grandfather Bull Frog was too much surprised at first to reply. But he finally said, "You don't seem to understand how it is. You see, I am the ruler of this Frog Pond and the island is my home."

"That makes no difference," said the stranger slowly. "It's going to be my island now, and you must get off at once, for I'm going to take it."

With that he began to puff out his cheeks, bulge out his big eyes, and snap his teeth together. He looked as if he were ready to swallow poor old Grandfather Bull Frog whole. While he kept up this threatening manner, he moved closer and closer to Grandfather, with his body very close to the ground. He didn't hop, but crept up an inch or two at a time, with his wicked eyes fixed on Grandfather Bull Frog. It certainly looked as if a very bad frog had arrived.

Bully had thought the strange frog looked anything but friendly when he first saw him on the log, but now he looked ten times more wicked. Where Bully sat he could see and hear everything that was going on. He watched Grandfather closely to see how he would take what the stranger was saying and doing. Would he frighten him into giving up the island? Bully was afraid he might. Bully thought he wouldn't blame Grandfather very much if he did, for the strange frog certainly looked both bad and big.

But Grandfather Frog didn't say a word. At first he looked surprised, then his handsome old face clouded all over with the most fearful rage. His big eyes fairly blazed with wrath, his cheeks puffed out hugely, and all at once he seemed much bigger than the bad stranger. He didn't move back an inch as he saw the bad frog coming toward him. He planted his big feet more firmly on the ground, as though about to make a mighty leap. He stretched out his neck with his chin almost touching the ground. Then, opening his big mouth and showing all his sharp teeth, he made one short leap and landed right on the back of that wicked stranger.

Grandfather jumped so suddenly and with so much force, that the bad frog was knocked down and rolled over and over on his back in the dirt. He was taken entirely by surprise, for he expected Grandfather to be so frightened he would leave the island without a fight. But before he knew what was happening, he was down, with Grandfather's big teeth gripping him in his side. My, how it hurt! He began to see his folly and the danger he was in and he wished he had been good. He saw that he must make the fight of his life. So, watching his chance, he sank his teeth into Grandfather's side. This made Grandfather bite all the harder, and sink his big teeth in all the deeper.

Each one holding onto the other, they rolled about in the dust, kicking, biting, and scratching. Grandfather stuck one of his fingers into the left eye of the bad frog, which almost made him let go, but just then the strange frog stuck his knee into Grandfather's stomach, almost knocking the breath out of him. He pulled his finger out of the bad frog's eye to hold it for a moment on his own stomach. The fight went on. Now the stranger was down on his back, and now Grandfather was under the stranger. They were so evenly matched in size and strength that it was hard to tell who would win.

But there was a bit of difference. Grandfather was in the right, and knew it, while the bad frog was in the wrong, and he knew it, too. It makes one strong to feel he is in the right. Grandfather was fighting for his home and family, and the stranger was fighting for that which didn't belong to him. This made the one strong and the other weak.