"What do you mean, Charley?"

"Don't you see he has grown so much lately that his skin is very tight,
and it is looking dull. He'll soon cast it off. It will split down his
back, and then he will draw his legs out of it.--And you'll have a nice
new suit complete, won't you, old Toady?"

"I think frogs are very interesting creatures too," said Tom.

"So they are," said Charley. "I often stand by our pond down there and
watch them. The pond is in a damp part of the garden; just what frogs
like. In the spring there's a lot of that spotted, jelly-looking stuff,
which is the frogs' spawn, or eggs, about the pond.

"By-and-by, in about a month or so, a tadpole comes out of the egg.
There are swarms of them wriggling about the water, with heads and
bodies and tails, but no legs. In about six weeks more the legs begin to
grow, and gradually the tadpole changes into a frog. See what a number
of young frogs there are hopping about here on the edge of the pond!
They are just out of their tadpole stage. They'll eat just what toads
eat, so they do no harm in a garden."

"I think I'll take some home with me and put them into the little pond
in grandpapa's garden," said Jack; "for I shall like to watch them
growing."

So Jack caught a few carefully, and tied them loosely in his pocket
handkerchief.

"Well," said Tom, "I think we must say good-bye, Charley; it's about