he soon found that he was mistaken.

"Here! Here's your pay, Mr. Frog!" they began to cry. And to their
astonishment Mr. Frog began to laugh.

"I don't want any pay," he declared. "Will you all promise to wear your
new clothes if I make them free?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" sounded on all sides.

"Then it's a bargain!" Ferdinand Frog shouted. And he leaped into the
air and kicked his heels together three times.

After that he turned a back somersault, and then he rolled over and over
until he landed with a great splash in the pond.

Deep down on the muddy bottom Mr. Frog laughed as if he could never
stop. The Beavers on the bank could neither see nor hear him. And he
knew there was no danger of their thinking him impolite, especially when
he said:

"They don't even know that I've played a trick on them! And what a
terrible sight they are! I've never seen any company that looked the
least bit like them."

XVI

STOP THAT!

On a cool summer's morning Ferdinand Frog was sitting among the reeds
near the bank of the pond when a harsh voice suddenly said:

"Stop that!"

Looking up, Mr. Frog saw a huge bird standing on one leg in the water,
watching him. The stranger was actually so big that Mr. Frog hadn't
noticed him.

To be sure, he had seen what he thought was a stick stuck upright in the
muddy bottom of the pond. That was really the stranger's leg; but Mr.
Frog hadn't taken the trouble to glance upwards and see what was at the
top of it.

Of course, Mr. Frog was frightened as soon as he discovered his mistake,
for the bird had a great, long bill. Without being told, Ferdinand Frog
knew that that bill could open like a trap--and seize him, too. But he
showed not the least sign that he was even disturbed.

"Stop that, I say!" the stranger repeated, before Mr. Frog had so much
as said a word.

"Stop what?" Mr. Frog asked.

"Stop sticking your tongue out at me!" the other commanded.

In spite of his alarm, when he heard that Ferdinand Frog began to laugh.

"I beg your pardon," he said, "but I think you are mistaken. I wasn't
sticking my tongue out at you. I was only catching flies." Mr. Frog paid
no attention to the sneering laugh that the stranger gave. "You see,"
he went on, "I'm having my breakfast. And this is how I manage it: I
wait here without moving until a fly comes my way. Then I dart my tongue
at him as quick as lightning.

"My tongue," Mr. Frog explained, "is fastened at the front of my