o remember exactly what
remarks they had made about Mr. Frog himself.

"Come out!" they all cried, as soon as they had recovered from their
surprise. "We want to see you!" And they formed a half-circle in the
dooryard.

Presently the door swung out, as if somebody had pushed it open. And
there, on the _inside_ of the open door, which was flung back against
the outside of the building, they all saw a sign, which said:

MR. FERDINAND FROG
UNFASHIONABLE TAILOR
ALL THE STYLES
FIVE YEARS AHEAD
OF THE TIMES

People began exclaiming that that was just like Ferdinand Frog--who was
an odd fellow--to have his sign painted on the inside of his door
instead of on the outside.

"It'll be all the style five years from now," he retorted.

So that was Mr. Frog's secret! He was a tailor himself! And there he
was, ready to make clothes for all of them!

It was almost too good to be true. But there he stood in the doorway,
with a tape around his neck, smiling and bowing.

"You'd better form in line!" he suggested. "You can come in through the
front door. I'll measure you. And you can pass out the back way. . . .
Don't crowd, please!"

Now, that was just where Mr. Frog made a great blunder. But he didn't
find it out till it was too late.

XIII

A SIXTY-INCH MEAL

Mr. Frog's scheme of measuring the Beaver family for new suits had just
one drawback; the Beaver family liked it too well. So pleased were they
over the prospect of having "unfashionable" clothes like Mr. Frog's at
last that all of them wanted to be measured not once but several times.
And each and every one, as soon as Mr. Frog had taken his measurements,
went out through the back door and slipped around the little building,
to wait again at the foot of the line.

Now, Mr. Frog was a spry worker. He passed his tape around his
customers and jotted down figures on flat, black stones as fast as he
could make his fingers fly. And if it hadn't been for just one thing
Ferdinand Frog would have been quite happy. But beginning with his first
customer, he was somewhat troubled; for in the whole company he found
not one who had brought his pocket-book with him.

"What's the matter?" he asked Grandaddy Beaver, when the old gentleman's
turn came. "Didn't you tell 'em what I said about pocket-books?"

"I certainly did!" Grandaddy replied. "I told them to be sure to leave
their pocket-books at home."

Mr. Frog gulped