hildren into the house.

XX

DISTURBING THE NEIGHBORS

It was no wonder that Long Bill Wren's wife did not care for Ferdinand
Frog, after his blundering remark about her children.

Though her husband often told her that Mr. Frog must have been merely
joking, she insisted that he was not a safe person to have in the
neighborhood.

"That Mr. Frog certainly is a queer one," she said to her husband one
day. "I was watching him this morning. And what do you suppose I saw him
do?" Mrs. Wren did not wait for Long Bill to answer her question. "Mr.
Frog actually pulled off his own skin!" she cackled nervously.

"Cat-tails and pussy-willows!" Long Bill Wren exclaimed--which was his
way of showing he was surprised. "Mr. Frog must be ill. Maybe I ought to
go and tell Aunt Polly Woodchuck, the herb-doctor, and ask her to come
over here at once."

His wife, however, shook her head.

"He can't be ill," she said.

"Why not?"

"His appetite is still good," she explained. "I saw Mr. Frog swallow his
skin after he had pulled it off. And it didn't seem to disagree with
him. He went in swimming right afterwards."

"Ah!" Long Bill exclaimed. "That's a very dangerous thing to do. At
least, I've often heard Johnnie Green say that a boy ought not to go in
the water sooner than a full hour after he has had a meal."

"There he is now!" Mrs. Wren cried abruptly. "There's Mr. Frog!"

Peeping out of the doorway on one side of his ball-shaped house, Long
Bill could see Ferdinand Frog paddling about in Black Creek.

While they were watching him, he sank before their eyes. And after a
time they couldn't help feeling uneasy, because their odd neighbor did
not show himself again.

"I'm afraid----" Long Bill whispered at last----"I'm afraid he was taken
with a cramp, for that's what you get by swimming too soon after a
meal--so Johnnie Green says. . . . I'm glad now that we didn't let Mr.
Frog teach our children to swim, because it's easy to see that he's a
careless fellow."

So worried were Long Bill and his wife over Mr. Frog's disappearance
that they hurried out and told all their neighbors about it. And soon a
crowd had gathered upon the bank of the creek, to watch the spot where
Mr. Frog had vanished.

They stayed there for a long time. But to their great alarm, their
missing friend did not reappear.

"I hope he's safe," old Mr. Turtle piped in his thin, quavering voice.
"He's making a new suit for me; and I'd hate to