STORY IX

GRANDPA CROAKER AND THE UMBRELLA


One day, as Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, was coming home from school he
thought of a very hard word he had had to spell in class that afternoon.
It began with a “C,” and the next letter was “A” and the next one was
“T”—CAT—and what do you think? Why Bully said it spelled “Kitten,” and
just for that he had to write the word on his slate forty-’leven times,
so he’d remember it next day.

“I guess I won’t forget it again in a hurry,” thought Bully as he hopped
along with his books in a strap over his shoulder. “C-a-t spells—” And
just then he heard a funny noise in the bushes, and he stopped short, as
Grandfather Goosey Gander’s clock did, when Jimmy Wibblewobble poured
molasses in it. Bully looked all around to see what the noise was. “For
it might be that alligator, or the Pelican bird,” he whispered to
himself.

Just then he heard a jolly laugh, and his brother Bawly hopped out from
under a cabbage leaf.

“Did I scare you, Bully?” asked Bawly, as he scratched his right ear
with his left foot.