If there is one virtue which Longlegs the Heron possesses above another
it is patience. Yes, Sir, Longlegs certainly has got patience. He
believes that if a thing is worth having, it is worth waiting for, and
that if he waits long enough, he is sure to get it. Perhaps that is
because he has been a fisherman all his life, and his father and his
grandfather were fishermen. You know a fisherman without patience rarely
catches anything. Of course Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter laugh at
this and say that it isn't so, but the truth is they sometimes go
hungry when they wouldn't if they had a little of the patience of
Longlegs.

Now Grandfather Frog is another who is very, very patient. He can sit
still the longest time waiting for something to come to him. Indeed, he
can sit perfectly still so long, and Longlegs can stand perfectly still
so long, that Jerry Muskrat and Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter have had
many long disputes as to which of the two can keep still the longest.

"He will make a splendid breakfast," thought Longlegs, as very, very
carefully he walked along the edge of the Smiling Pool so as to get
right opposite Grandfather Frog. There he stopped and looked very hard
at Grandfather Frog. Yes, he certainly must be asleep, for his eyes were
closed. Longlegs chuckled to himself right down inside without making a
sound, and got ready to wade out so as to get within reach.

Now all the time Grandfather Frog was doing some quiet chuckling
himself. You see, he wasn't asleep at all. He was just pretending to be
asleep, and all the time he was watching Longlegs out of a corner of one
of his big goggly eyes. Very, very slowly and carefully, so as not to
make the teeniest, weeniest sound, Longlegs lifted one foot to wade out