But Mr. Toad could hardly wait to get rid of his tail before turning his
back on the Smiling Pool and starting out to see the Great World.
Nothing that Grandfather Frog could say would stop him, and away Mr.
Toad went, when he was so small that he could hide under a clover leaf.
Grandfather Frog didn't expect ever to see him again. But he did,
though it wasn't for a long, long time. And when he did come back, he
had grown so that Grandfather Frog hardly knew him at first. And right
then and there began a dispute which they have kept up ever since:
whether it was best to go out into the Great World or remain in the home
of childhood. Each was sure that what he had done was best, and each is
sure of it to this day.
So whenever old Mr. Toad visits Grandfather Frog, as he does every once
in a while, they are sure to argue and argue on this same old subject.
It was so on the day that Grandfather Frog had so nearly choked to
death. Old Mr. Toad had heard about it from one of the Merry Little
Breezes of Old Mother West Wind and right away had started for the
Smiling Pool to pay his respects to Grandfather Frog, and to tell him
how glad he was that Spotty the Turtle had come along just in time to
pull the fish out of Grandfather Frog's throat.
Now all day long Grandfather Frog had had to listen to unpleasant
remarks about his greediness.
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