“Watch me!” cried Bawly, and this time he gave a most tremendous and extraordinary jump, and right up to the church steeple he went, but he didn’t go over it, and it’s a good thing, too, or he’d have been all broken to pieces when he landed on the ground again. But instead he hit right on top of the church steeple and stayed there, where there was a nice, round, golden ball to sit on.
“Jump down! Jump down!” cried the fox, for he wanted to eat Bawly.
“No, I’m going to stay here,” answered the frog boy, for now he saw how far it was to the ground, and he knew he’d be killed if he leaped off the steeple.
Well, the fox tried to get him to jump down, but Bawly wouldn’t. And then the frog boy began to wonder how he’d ever get home, for the steeple was very high.
Then what do you think Bawly did? Why, he took a lemon and threw it at the church bell, hoping to ring it so the janitor would come and help him down. But the lemon was too soft to ring the bell loudly enough for any to hear.
Then Bawly thought of his peanuts, and he threw a handful of them at the church bell in the steeple, making it ring like an alarm clock, and the janitor, who was sweeping out the church for Sunday, heard the bell, and he looked up and saw the frog on the steeple. Then the janitor, being a kind man, got a ladder and helped Bawly down, and the fox, very much disappointed, limped away, and didn’t eat the frog boy after all.
“But you must never try to jump over a steeple again,” said Bawly’s mamma when he told her about it, after he got home with the lemons, and found Bully there ahead of him with the sugar.
So Bawly promised that he wouldn’t, and he never did. And now, if the postman brings me a pink letter with a green stamp on from the playful elephant in the circus, I’ll tell you next about Bully and the basket of chips.