VIII

SPOTTY THE TURTLE PLAYS DOCTOR

Greed's a dreadful thing to see,
As everybody will agree.


At first Little Joe Otter, sitting on the bank of the Smiling Pool,
laughed himself almost sick as he watched Grandfather Frog trying to
swallow a fish almost as big as himself, when his white and yellow
waistcoat was already stuffed so full of foolish green flies that there
wasn't room for anything more. Such greed would have been disgusting, if
it hadn't been so very, very funny. At least, it was funny at first, for
the fish had stuck, with the tail hanging out of Grandfather Frog's big
mouth. Grandfather Frog hitched this way and hitched that way on his
big green lily-pad, trying his best to swallow. Twice he tumbled off
with a splash into the Smiling Pool. Each time he scrambled back again
and rolled his great goggly eyes in silent appeal to Little Joe Otter to
come to his aid.

[Illustration: As soon as they saw Grandfather Frog, they began to
laugh, too. _Page 37._]

But Little Joe was laughing so that he had to hold his sides, and he
didn't understand that Grandfather Frog really was in trouble. Billy
Mink and Jerry Muskrat came along, and as soon as they saw Grandfather