tones at us."

"To see you jump," said Bobby, honestly.

"Thoughtlessness!" said the professor. "That's worse."

"Why do you kick us, instead of lifting us gently when we are in your
way?" inquired a toad in a stern voice.

"Because you will give me warts if I touch you," said Bobby, pleased to
think that he had a good reason at last.

"Ignorance!" cried the professor. "The toad is absolutely harmless. It
has about it a liquid that might cause pain to a cut finger or a
sensitive tissue like that of the mouth or eye, but the old story that a
toad is poisonous is a silly fable."

"Will you tell me, please," asked a toad in a plaintive voice, "if you
are the boy who, last year, carried home some of my babies in a tin pail
and let them die?"

"I'm afraid I am," said Bobby, sorrowfully.

"Do explain why you dislike us!" said Mrs. Bufo in such a frank fashion
that Bobby felt that he must tell the truth.

"I suppose it's your looks," said the boy, unable to frame his answer in
more polite terms.

"Well, upon my word!" interrupted the professor. "I thought better of a
boy than that. So you prefer boys with pretty faces and soft, curling
hair, and nice clothes, to those who can climb and jump and who are not
afraid of a day's tramp in the woods."

"Of course I don't," said indignant Bobby. "I hate boys who are always
thinking about their clothes."

"Oh, you do!" said the frog. "Now answer me a few more questions. Have
you ever stolen birds' eggs?"

"Yes," said truthful Bobby.

"Have you collected butterflies?"

"Yes," said Bobby.

"Have you taken nuts from the squirrels' cupboards?"

"Yes," said Bobby.

"Do you think we ought to have a very friendly feeling towards you?"
went on the questioner.

"No," said Bobby; "I don't."

"We have shown that you are not only useless, but careless and
thoughtless and ignorant," said the frog. "Is there any very good reason
why we should let you go?"

Poor Bobby racked his brains to think of something that should appeal to
his captors.

"I have a right to live, haven't I?" he said at last.

"Because you are so pretty?" suggested the professor, and Bobby's eyes
fell with shame.

"Any better right than we have?" came a chorus of voices. Bobby was
silent. He felt very helpless and insignificant. There was a long pause.
Then the frog professor smiled broadly at Bobby.

"Come," he said; "I like you. You are not afraid to be honest, and
that's something."

"If you