Mother West Wind Where Stories | Page 2

those lily-pads could be growing there. He was still
staring at those lily-pads when a great deep voice said:
"Chug-a-rum! Chug-a-rum! Don't you know it isn't polite to stare at
people?"
That voice was so unexpected and so deep that Peter was startled. He
jumped, started to run, then stopped. He wanted to run, but curiosity
wouldn't let him. He simply couldn't run away until he had found out
where that voice came from and to whom it belonged. It seemed to
Peter that it had come from right out of the Smiling Pool, but look as he
would, he couldn't see any one there.
"If you please," said Peter timidly, "I'm not staring at anybody." All the
time he was staring down into the Smiling Pool with eyes fairly
popping out of his head.
"Chug-a-rum! Have a care, young fellow! Have a care how you talk to
your elders. Do you mean to be impudent enough to tell me to my face
that I am not anybody?" The voice was deeper and gruffer than ever,
and it made Peter more uncomfortable than ever.
"Oh, no, Sir! No, indeed!" exclaimed Peter. "I don't mean anything of
the kind. I--I--well, if you please, Sir, I don't see you at all, so how can
I be staring at you? I'm sure from the sound of your voice that you must
be somebody very important. Please excuse me for seeming to stare. I
was just looking for you, that is all."
A little movement in the water close to a big green lily-pad caught
Peter's eyes, and then out on the big green lily-pad climbed Grandfather
Frog. If Peter had stared before he doubly stared now, eyes and mouth
wide open. Grandfather Frog was looking his very best in his handsome

green coat and white-and-yellow waistcoat. But Peter had hardly
noticed these at all.
"Why, you're all mouth!" he exclaimed, and then looked very much
ashamed of his impoliteness.
Grandfather Frog's great goggly eyes twinkled. He knew that Peter was
very young and innocent and just starting out in the Great World. He
knew that Peter didn't intend to be impolite.
"Not quite," said he good-naturedly. "Not quite all mouth, though I
must admit that it is of good size. The fact is, I wouldn't have it a bit
smaller if I could. If it were any smaller, I should miss many a good
meal, and if I were forced to do that, I am afraid I should be very
ill-tempered indeed. The truth is, I am very proud of my big mouth. I
don't know of any one who has a bigger one for their size."
He opened his mouth wide, and it seemed to Peter that Grandfather
Frog's whole head simply split in halves. He hadn't supposed anybody
in all the Great World possessed such a mouth.
"Where did you get it?" gasped Peter, and then felt that he had asked a
very foolish question.
Grandfather Frog chuckled. "I got it from my father, and he got his
from his father, and so on, way back to the days when the world was
young and the Frogs ruled the world," said he. "Would you like to hear
about it?"
"I'd love to!" cried Peter. So he settled himself comfortably on the bank
of the Smiling Pool for the first of many, many stories he was to hear
from Grandfather Frog.
"Chug-a-rum!" began Grandfather Frog. You know he always begins a
story that way. "Chug-a-rum! Once upon a time the Great World was
mostly water, and most of the people lived in the water. It was in those
days that my great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather lived. Those were
happy days for the Frogs. Yes, indeed, those were happy days for the

Frogs. Of course they had enemies, but those enemies were all in the
water. They didn't have to be watching out for danger from the air and
from the land, as I do now. There was plenty to eat and little to do, and
the Frog tribe increased very fast. In fact, the Frogs increased so fast
that after a while there wasn't plenty to eat. That is, there wasn't plenty
of the kind of food they had been used to, which was mostly water
plants, and water bugs and such things.
"Of course there were many fish, and these also increased very fast, and
the big fish ate the Frogs whenever they could catch them, just as they
do to this day. The big fish also ate the little fish, and it wasn't long
before the Frogs and the little fish took to living where the water was
not deep enough for the big fish to swim, and this made it all the harder
to get enough to eat. The mouths of the Frogs in