a serious thing, in any part of the Land of Oz, to accuse one of
stealing, so when the Yips heard Cayke the Cookie Cook declare that her
jeweled dishpan had been stolen they were both humiliated and disturbed
and forced Cayke to go with them to the Frogman to see what could be
done about it.

I do not suppose you have ever before heard of the Frogman, for like all
other dwellers on that tableland he had never been away from it, nor had
anyone come up there to see him. The Frogman was, in truth, descended
from the common frogs of Oz, and when he was first born he lived in a
pool in the Winkie Country and was much like any other frog. Being of an
adventurous nature, however, he soon hopped out of his pool and began to
travel, when a big bird came along and seized him in its beak and
started to fly away with him to its nest. When high in the air the frog
wriggled so frantically that he got loose and fell down--down--down into
a small hidden pool on the tableland of the Yips. Now this pool, it
seems, was unknown to the Yips because it was surrounded by thick bushes
and was not near to any dwelling, and it proved to be an enchanted pool,
for the frog grew very fast and very big, feeding on the magic skosh
which is found nowhere else on earth except in that one pool. And the
skosh not only made the frog very big, so that when he stood on his hind
legs he was tall as any Yip in the country, but it made him unusually
intelligent, so that he soon knew more than the Yips did and was able to
reason and to argue very well indeed.

[Illustration]

No one could expect a frog with these talents to remain in a hidden
pool, so he finally got out of it and mingled with the people of the
tableland, who were amazed at his appearance and greatly impressed by
his learning. They had never seen a frog before and the frog had never
seen a Yip before, but as there were plenty of Yips and only one frog,
the frog became the most important. He did not hop any more, but stood
upright on his hind legs and dressed himself in fine clothes and sat in
chairs and did all the things that people do; so he soon came to be
called the Frogman, and that is the only name he has ever had.

After some years had passed the people came to regard the Frogman as
their adviser in all matters that puzzled them. They brought all their
difficulties to him and when he did not know anything he pretended to
know it, which seemed to answer just as well. Indeed, the Yips t