wee baby Redwing.



CHAPTER II WHY GRANDFATHER FROG HAS NO TAIL

Old Mother West Wind had gone to her day's work, leaving all the
Merry Little Breezes to play in the Green Meadows. They had
played tag and run races with the Bees and played hide and seek
with the Sun Beams, and now they had gathered around the Smiling
Pool where on a green lily pad sat Grandfather Frog.

Grandfather Frog was old, very old, indeed, and very, very wise.
He wore a green coat and his voice was very deep. When
Grandfather Frog spoke everybody listened very respectfully. Even
Billy Mink treated Grandfather Frog with respect, for Billy
Mink's father and his father's father could not remember when
Grandfather Frog had not sat on the lily pad watching for green
flies.

Down in the Smiling Pool were some of Grandfather Frog's
great-great-great-great-great grandchildren. You wouldn't have
known that they were his grandchildren unless some one told you.
They didn't look the least bit like Grandfather Frog. They were
round and fat and had long tails and perhaps this is why they
were called Pollywogs.

"Oh Grandfather Frog, tell us why you don't have a tail as you
did when you were young," begged one of the Merry Little Breezes.