After some time she lifted her hands from her eyes and said, "I saw the man looking at Mr. House Frog, and the woman crying and saying, 'How terrible! Here are those poor little frogs back again. I am so sorry, so sorry!' Now she didn't seem at all afraid, only very, very sorry for us. The man picked me up in his big, warm hands and said, 'You poor little thing! You know I didn't mean to hurt you.' Of course I knew he was not to blame, but I couldn't tell him so.
"They took Mr. House Frog out and buried him, and the woman said I should always live with them. She said never again would she be so silly as to be afraid of me. Well, I lived there a long time. Then one day the woman began to put their things into trunks and boxes. I knew something was going to happen. Seeing me, the man picked me up and said, 'You shall go with us, Froggie. You have stood by us so long.'
"They packed me in soft mud, and I slept for many days. I was awakened by a boy who had spilled the mud on the ground. Several people were near us, and I learned by their conversation that we had crossed the great ocean and were now in a strange land. The man had died at sea and the woman was going to the mountains. 'I shall have this frog for my pet,' said the boy. How I learned to dislike that boy! He poked me with sticks. He threw dirt at me when I tried to sing. He kept me in a pen where I had not enough to eat.
"Do you wonder that when I found a small hole in the pen I squeezed through it and hurried away as fast as I could? After going a little way I saw a Lark hopping about looking for his breakfast. I was so sad and lonely I went right over and spoke to him. I told him all my troubles, and that I did not know where to go in this big strange land.
"The Lark told me all about this beautiful place. It made me want to come here at once. I am glad I came, for it is very beautiful. I am sure I shall like to live here."
THE WONDERFUL NEST
Just as the sinking sun began to drop his dark curtain over the Frog Pond, and the beautiful moon lifted her fair face in the east, a strange frog came out of the woods and hopped toward the pond.
"Ker-r-rump," called an old bullfrog very loudly. On hearing this, frogs could be seen coming from almost every direction. Soon there was a great crowd around the stranger. They began all at one time asking her questions. Grandfather Frog told them to be quiet and give her a chance to speak for herself.
"I have come a long way," said the stranger. "My home is in the far-off land of Brazil. I was happy there and wished for no better place to live. One day a man came along, and then all my life was changed. He caught my mate and me in a net and brought us away to this big country. Here he put us in a tiny lake that was in a small park. We lived there only a short time when one evening, as I was busy building a nest, an owl swooped down from the sky. Before I knew he was near he had seized me with his big feet and swiftly carried me away. 'Oh, dear,' I thought, 'this will surely be the last of me, for he is taking me to his nest as food for his babies.'