Old Mother West Wind | Page 5

very little dry land-- oh, very little
indeed! There were no boys to throw stones and no hungry Mink to

gobble up foolish Frog-babies who were taking a sun bath!"
Billy Mink, who had joined the Merry Little Breezes and was listening,
squirmed uneasily and looked away guiltily.
"In those days all the Frogs had tails, long handsome tails of which they
were very, very proud indeed," continued Grandfather Frog. "The King
of all the Frogs was twice as big as any other Frog, and his tail was
three times as long. He was very proud, oh, very proud indeed of his
long tail. He used to sit and admire it until he thought that there never
had been and never could be another such tail. He used to wave it back
and forth in the water, and every time he waved it all the other Frogs
would cry 'Ah!' and 'Oh!' Every day the King grew more vain. He did
nothing at all but eat and sleep and admire his tail.
"Now all the other Frogs did just as the King did, so pretty soon none
of the Frogs were doing anything but sitting about eating, sleeping and
admiring their own tails and the King's.
"Now you all know that people who do nothing worth while in this
world are of no use and there is little room for them. So when Mother
Nature saw how useless had become the Frog tribe she called the King
Frog before her and she said:
"'Because you can think of nothing but your beautiful tail it shall be
taken away from you. Because you do nothing but eat and sleep your
mouth shall become wide like a door, and your eyes shall start forth
from your head. You shall become bow-legged and ugly to look at, and
all the world shall laugh at you.'
"The King Frog looked at his beautiful tail and already it seemed to
have grown shorter. He looked again and it was shorter still. Every time
he looked his tail had grown shorter and smaller. By and by when he
looked there was nothing left but a little stub which he couldn't even
wriggle. Then even that disappeared, his eyes popped out of his head
and his mouth grew bigger and bigger."
Old Grandfather Frog stopped and looked sadly at a foolish green fly
coming his way. "Chug-arum," said Grandfather Frog, opening his
mouth very wide and hopping up in the air. When he sat down again on
his big lily pad the green fly was nowhere to be seen. Grandfather Frog
smacked his lips and continued:
"And from that day to this every Frog has started life with a big tail,
and as he has grown bigger and bigger his tail has grown smaller and

smaller, until finally it disappears, and then he remembers how foolish
and useless it is to be vain of what nature has given us. And that is how
I came to lose my tail," finished Grandfather Frog.
"Thank you," shouted all the Merry Little Breezes. "We won't forget."
Then they ran a race to see who could reach Johnny Chuck's home first
and tell him that Farmer Brown was coming down on the Green
Meadows with a gun.

CHAPTER III
HOW REDDY FOX WAS SURPRISED
Johnny Chuck and Reddy Fox lived very near together on the edge of
the Green Meadows. Johnny Chuck was fat and roly-poly. Reddy Fox
was slim and wore a bright red coat. Reddy Fox used to like to frighten
Johnny Chuck by suddenly popping out from behind a tree and making
believe that he was going to eat Johnny Chuck all up.
One bright summer day Johnny Chuck was out looking for a good
breakfast of nice tender clover. He had wandered quite a long way from
his snug little house in the long meadow grass, although his mother had
told him never to go out of sight of the door. But Johnny was like some
little boys I know, and forgot all he had been told.
He walked and walked and walked. Every few minutes Johnny Chuck
saw something farther on that looked like a patch of nice fresh clover.
And every time when he reached it Johnny Chuck found that he had
made a mistake. So Johnny Chuck walked and walked and walked.
Old Mother West Wind, coming across the Green Meadows, saw
Johnny Chuck and asked him where he was going. Johnny Chuck
pretended not to hear and just walked faster.
One of the Merry Little Breezes danced along in front of him.
"Look out, Johnny Chuck, you will get lost," cried the Merry Little
Breeze then pulled Johnny's whiskers and ran away.
Higher and higher up in the sky climbed round, red Mr. Sun.