hich were as smooth as glass. The gulf extended a long
distance--as far as they could see, in either direction--and although it
was not very wide it was far too wide for the Yips to leap across it.
And, should they fall into it, it was likely they might never get out
again.

"Here our journey ends," said the Yips. "We must go back again."

Cayke the Cookie Cook began to weep.

"I shall never find my pretty dishpan again--and my heart will be
broken!" she sobbed.

The Frogman went to the edge of the gulf and with his eye carefully
measured the distance to the other side.

"Being a frog," said he, "I can leap, as all frogs do; and, being so big
and strong, I am sure I can leap across this gulf with ease. But the
rest of you, not being frogs, must return the way you came."

"We will do that with pleasure," cried the Yips and at once they turned
and began to climb up the steep mountain, feeling they had had quite
enough of this unsatisfactory adventure. Cayke the Cookie Cook did not
go with them, however. She sat on a rock and wept and wailed and was
very miserable.

"Well," said the Frogman to her, "I will now bid you good-bye. If I find
your diamond decorated gold dishpan I will promise to see that it is
safely returned to you."

"But I prefer to find it myself!" she said. "See here, Frogman, why
can't you carry me across the gulf when you leap it? You are big and
strong, while I am small and thin."

The Frogman gravely thought over this suggestion. It was a fact that
Cayke the Cookie Cook was not a heavy person. Perhaps he could leap the
gulf with her on his back.

"If you are willing to risk a fall," said he, "I will make the attempt."

At once she sprang up and grabbed him around his neck with both her
arms. That is, she grabbed him where his neck ought to be, for the
Frogman had no neck at all. Then he squatted down, as frogs do when
they leap, and with his powerful rear legs he made a tremendous jump.

Over the gulf he sailed, with the Cookie Cook on his back, and he had
leaped so hard--to make sure of not falling in--that he sailed over a
lot of bramble-bushes that grew on the other side and landed in a clear
space which was so far beyond the gulf that when they looked back they
could not see it at all.

Cayke now got off the Frogman's back and he stood erect again and
carefully brushed the dust from his velvet coat and rearranged his white
satin necktie.

"I had no idea I could leap so far," he sa