chance to defend yourself. It is not customary to inquire into the moral
character of specimens, but we do not wish to be unjust. Perhaps you can
explain why you made a bonfire the very week after the toads came out of
their winter-quarters. Dozens of lives were destroyed before that fire
was put out."

"I forgot about the toads," began Bobby.

"Carelessness!" said the professor. "Now you may tell us why you like to
throw stones at us."

"To see you jump," said Bobby, honestly.

"Thoughtlessness!" said the professor. "That's worse."

"Why do you kick us, instead of lifting us gently when we are in your
way?" inquired a toad in a stern voice.

"Because you will give me warts if I touch you," said Bobby, pleased to
think that he had a good reason at last.

"Ignorance!" cried the professor. "The toad is absolutely harmless. It
has about it a liquid that might cause pain to a cut finger or a
sensitive tissue like that of the mouth or eye, but the old story that a
toad is poisonous is a silly fable."

"Will you tell me, please," asked a toad in a plaintive voice, "if you
are the boy who, last year, carried home some of my babies in a tin pail
and let them die?"