person, with a yellow throat which he puffed out like
a bag as he sang. And his skin was so rough that Mrs. Ladybug shuddered
as she looked at it. Her own was very, very smooth.

All at once the frog looked up and spied Mrs. Ladybug staring at him.

She would have shrieked--had she been able to.

Then Mrs. Ladybug did the thing that she always did whenever she had a
great fright. She played dead. She pulled her feet under her body, out
of sight, and stuck, motionless, to the grass stalk.

Nothing happened. And she was about to take another sly look at the
frog when something moved the stalk of grass. It was only the wind. But
Mrs. Ladybug didn't know that. She was sure that the frog had touched
it.

Then Mrs. Ladybug played her next trick. She let go of the stalk and
dropped to the ground, where she lay upon her side as if she would never
move again.

Once more she kept quite still. And since nobody disturbed her, after a
time she opened her eyes.

She found herself looking straight into those of the tiny frog, who
still sat upon his lily pad in the duck pond.

Mrs. Ladybug shut her eyes instantly. She only hoped that the frog
hadn't noticed her action.

XVII

A BRAVE GENTLEMAN

MRS. LADYBUG didn't know that the frog she saw was a very timid fellow.
His name was Mr. Cricket Frog. He liked to sit on a lily pad and sing.
And his singing sounded a good deal like the music that Chirpy Cricket
made. In fact, that was the reason for his odd name.

Mr. Cricket Frog had a trick not unlike the one that Mrs. Ladybug
herself played upon him. Whenever a fish, or any other enemy, came near
him, if he hadn't time to hide in the mud at the bottom of the pond Mr.
Cricket Frog played dead. He would float in the water as if lifeless,
until his enemy had gone off about his business.

He was so timid--this Mr. Cricket Frog--that when he saw a stranger he
would sometimes play dead. And that was exactly what happened when he
caught sight of Mrs. Ladybug as she clung to the grass stalk near the
edge of the duck pond and stared at him.

Of course Mrs. Ladybug didn't know all this. When she shut her eyes, and
pulled her feet under her body, she wasn't aware that Mr. Cricket Frog
was just as alarmed as she was. Having closed her eyes, she couldn't see
him jump into the water and float. She couldn't see him climb out upon
the lily pad again and gaze at her.

Now, the moment Mrs. Ladybug looked at the frog the second ti