"Dear me! Are their heads flat?" Johnny Cricket asked.

"Flat as a pancake!" Gran'pa Skeeterhawk replied, and then told them
this story:

"I've heard _my_ Gran'pa tell that once the catfish had heads that were
shaped like sunfish," Gran'pa Skeeterhawk said, "and they thought that
they were not only the most beautiful fish but the fiercest fighters in
the world, although they would always swim away as fast as they could
whenever anything came near them. You see, they really were not even a
teeney, weeney bit brave.

"But when the catfish got by themselves and they thought there was no
one else to overhear them, they would make up fairy tales of wonderful
adventures they had gone through, and fierce monsters they had
destroyed. One would say 'I wish I were large enough to drag home the
enormous giant eel I killed today. He was sixteen feet long, and weighed
five hundred pounds.' Another would say, 'Pooh, that is nothing! Why,
you ought to see an Indian who tried to catch me in a net! Why, I not
only pulled him in the water and dragged him all over the bottom, but I
made him promise he would never disturb any of the catfish tribe after
this!'

"Just then a little bird flew over the water and his shadow so startled
the boastful catfish, they buried themselves in the mud at the bottom of
the stream.

"After a while," Grand'pa Skeeterhawk continued, "They got up courage
to peek out of the mud, and as they saw nothing to frighten them, they
formed in a circle and told more tales of their fighting qualities.