to old Mr. Toad or to any one else that there was anything for him to
learn, for you know he is very old and by his friends is accounted very
wise. But right down in his heart he was beginning to think that perhaps
there were some things which he couldn't learn in the Smiling Pool. So
he sat and thought and thought. Suddenly he made up his mind.

"Chugarum!" said he. "I'll do it!"

"Do what?" asked Jerry Muskrat, who happened to be swimming past.

"I'll go out and see for myself what this Great World my cousin, old Mr.
Toad, is so fond of talking about is like," replied Grandfather Frog.

"Don't you do it," advised Jerry Muskrat. "Don't you do anything so
foolish as that. You're too old, much too old, Grandfather Frog, to go
out into the Great World."

Now few old people like to be told that they are too old to do what they
please, and Grandfather Frog is no different from others. "You just mind
your own affairs, Jerry Muskrat," he retorted sharply. "I guess I know
what is best for me without being told. If my cousin, old Mr. Toad, can
take care of himself out in the Great World, I can. He isn't half so
spry as I am. I'm going, and that is all there is about it!"

With that Grandfather Frog dived into the Smiling Pool, swam across to a
place where the bank was low, and without once looking back started
across the Green Meadows to see the Great World.