took a great interest in the youngsters, who were already big
enough to leave their ball-shaped home, which hung among the reeds, and
hop about on the bank of the creek--and even fly a bit now and then.

Quite often Mr. Frog stopped to look at Long Bill's children and tell
their parents how handsome they were.

"I suppose--" he said to their father one day----"I suppose you are
going to teach them to swim?"

Long Bill Wren hadn't thought of that. And he said quickly that he was
afraid it wouldn't be safe.

But Mr. Frog replied that it certainly wouldn't be safe not to, living
as they did so close to the water.

"They're liable to tumble in almost any day," he said. "I suppose you
can swim, yourself?"

"No!" Long Bill answered, looking somewhat worried. "I've never learned
how."

Mr. Frog appeared greatly surprised by his neighbor's reply.

"Then I'd be glad to teach your children," he offered.

"Swimming is a very simple matter. And when you're young is the time to
learn. I began when I was a tadpole. And knowing how to swim has saved
my life a good many times."

Naturally the children were eager to have a lesson at once. And Long
Bill Wren was about to yield to their teasing, when his wife happened to
come flying home.

"What's going on here?" she asked sharply, for she saw that something
unusual was afoot.

And when her husband explained Mr. Frog had kindly offered to teach the
children to swim she cried, "The idea! I won't have it!"

Long Bill Wren looked uncomfortable. He was afraid his wife had hurt Mr.
Frog's feelings.

But Mr. Frog smiled and bowed politely to Mrs. Wren.

"Surely you're not afraid your children will drown in my care?" he
cried.

"No!" she told him. "The trouble is I'd be nervous, because one of my
young brothers was eaten by a member of your family."

Ferdinand Frog's face fell. But not for long.

"I don't see how that could have come about," he declared. "It must have
been an accident."

"Perhaps!" Long Bill's wife replied. "Anyhow, I want no such accidents
to happen to my children." And she looked sternly at her new neighbor.

Mr. Frog glanced away uneasily.

"I'm afraid," he observed, "you do not trust me. But I assure you I had
no idea of eating any of your little ones. They'd be perfectly safe with
me. Why, every one of them is so plump I'd never be able to decide which
one to choose first!"

He often wondered, afterward, why Mrs. Wren promptly called all her
c