"He's the worst man in the settlement," said the toad, "and when he put me in his neglected garden I only waited for his back to be turned to go round to every creature on the place and tell them what I thought of him. Then I hopped 'way up here and I'm most dead."
"I never thought about toads loving their homes," I said, "but why shouldn't they?"
"My little home is so snug," he said feelingly. "When I go in every winter and draw the soft earth after me, I feel like a king. Toads have feelings as well as human beings. I'd just like to see that man's face when all his livestock leaves him. Only the old grey mare refused to come. She said, 'He's my master and though he's a bad one I can't run away.'"
"What a pity he is not as kind as the Deverings," I said.
"The Deverings are fine," said Hoppy, "except that they don't pet us toads quite enough."
"Hoppy," I said rebukingly, "I've seen the children tickling your back with a grass blade many times, and you shut your eyes with pleasure."
"Mr. Devering never tickles me," he said complainingly.
"He's a busy man."
"I'd like to run a race with him at catching flies," he said. "I bet I would beat him."
"I bet you would," I said.