such numbers of toads to be destroyed?"

"It's a shame!" chimed in a voice from the front seats. "We keep out of
the way as much as we can; we eat every kind of troublesome worm and
insect,--the cutworm, canker-worm, tent caterpillar, army-worm,
rose-beetle, and the common house-fly; we ask for no wages or food or
care,--and what do we get in return? Not even protection and common
kindness. If we had places where we could live in safety, who could tell
the amount of good we might do? Yet I would not have this poor boy hurt
if a word of mine could prevent it."

"This is a scientific meeting," observed the professor; "and benevolent
sentiments are quite out of place. We will now proceed to notice the
delicate nervous system of the creature. Stand closer, my friends, if
you please."

"Nervous system, indeed!" said Bobby. "Boys don't have such silly things
as nerves!"

Suddenly Bobby felt a multitude of tiny pin pricks over the entire
surface of his body. The suffering was not intense, but the irritation
made him squirm and wince. He could not discover the cause of his
discomfort, but at the professor's command it suddenly ceased.

"That will do," said the frog. "Each hair on his head is also connected
with a nerve. Pull his hair, please!"

"Oh, don't!" said Bobby. "That hurts!"

Nobody listened to him. It did hurt, more than you would think, for tiny