STORY IX
GRANDPA CROAKER AND THE UMBRELLA
One day, as Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, was coming home from school he thought of a very hard word he had had to spell in class that afternoon. It began with a “C,” and the next letter was “A” and the next one was “T”—CAT—and what do you think? Why Bully said it spelled “Kitten,” and just for that he had to write the word on his slate forty-’leven times, so he’d remember it next day.
“I guess I won’t forget it again in a hurry,” thought Bully as he hopped along with his books in a strap over his shoulder. “C-a-t spells—” And just then he heard a funny noise in the bushes, and he stopped short, as Grandfather Goosey Gander’s clock did, when Jimmy Wibblewobble poured molasses in it. Bully looked all around to see what the noise was. “For it might be that alligator, or the Pelican bird,” he whispered to himself.
Just then he heard a jolly laugh, and his brother Bawly hopped out from under a cabbage leaf.
“Did I scare you, Bully?” asked Bawly, as he scratched his right ear with his left foot.
“A little,” said Bully, turning a somersault to get over being frightened.