And the fish which had caused all the trouble
lay floating on the water.
"Thank you! Thank you!" gasped Grandfather Frog, as he feebly crawled
back on the lily-pad. "A minute more, and I would have choked to death."
"Don't mention it," replied Spotty the Turtle.
"I never, never will," promised Grandfather Frog.
IX
OLD MR. TOAD VISITS GRANDFATHER FROG
Grandfather Frog and old Mr. Toad are cousins. Of course you know that
without being told. Everybody does. But not everybody knows that they
were born in the same place. They were. Yes, Sir, they were. They were
born in the Smiling Pool. Both had long tails and for a while no legs,
and they played and swam together without ever going on shore. In fact,
when they were babies, they couldn't live out of the water. And people
who saw them didn't know the difference between them and called them by
the same names--tadpoles or pollywogs. But when they grew old enough to
have legs and get along without tails, they parted company.
You see, it was this way: Grandfather Frog (of course he wasn't
grandfather then) loved the Smiling Pool so well that he couldn't think
of leaving it. He heard all about the Great World and what a wonderful
place it was, but he couldn't and wouldn't believe that there could be
any nicer place than the Smiling Pool, and so he made up his mind that
he would live there always.
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