ruth is
that my boasted wisdom is all a sham, assumed by me to deceive people
and make them defer to me. In truth, no living creature can know much
more than his fellows, for one may know one thing, and another know
another thing, so that wisdom is evenly scattered throughout the world.
But--ah, me!--what a terrible fate will now be mine. Even Cayke the
Cookie Cook will soon discover that my knowledge is no greater than her
own; for having bathed in the enchanted water of the Truth Pond, I can
no longer deceive her or tell a lie."

[Illustration]

More humbled than he had been for many years, the Frogman went back to
the grove where he had left Cayke and found the woman now awake and
washing her face in a tiny brook.

"Where has Your Honor been?" she asked.

"To a farmhouse to ask for something to eat," said he, "but the woman
refused me."

"How dreadful!" she exclaimed. "But never mind; there are other houses,
where the people will be glad to feed the Wisest Creature in all the
World."

"Do you mean yourself?" he asked.

"No, I mean you."

The Frogman felt strongly impelled to tell the truth, but struggled hard
against it. His reason told him there was no use in letting Cayke know
he was not wise, for then she would lose much respect for him, but each
time he opened his mouth to speak he realized he was about to tell the
truth and shut it again as quickly as possible. He tried to talk about
something else, but the words necessary to undeceive the woman would
force themselves to his lips in spite of all his struggles. Finally,
knowing that he must either remain dumb or let the truth prevail, he
gave a low groan of despair and said:

"Cayke, I am _not_ the Wisest Creature in all the World; I am not wise
at all."

[Illustration]

"Oh, you must be!" she protested. "You told me so yourself, only last
evening."

"Then last evening I failed to tell you the truth," he admitted, looking
very shamefaced, for a frog. "I am sorry I told you that lie, my good
Cayke; but, if you must know the truth, the whole truth and nothing but
the truth, I am not really as wise as you are."

The Cookie Cook was greatly shocked to hear this, for it shattered one
of her most pleasing illusions. She looked at the gorgeously dressed
Frogman in amazement.

"What has caused you to change your mind so suddenly?" she inquired.

"I have bathed in the Truth Pond," he said, "and whoever bathes in that
water is ever afterward obliged t