down to the pond. From every direction, 

 from garden and lawn and wood and old 

 stone wall, they came croaking and trilling 

 through the quiet twilight, and hopping high 

 with delight at the first smell of water. 

 Down the banks they came, sliding, rolling, 

 tumbling end over end, any way to get 

 down quickly, landing at last with glad 

 splashings and croakings in the warm shal- 

 lows, where they promptly took to biting 

 and clawing and absurd little wrestling 

 bouts; which is the toad's way of settling 

 his disputes and taking his own mate away 

 from the other fellows. 



Two or three days they stayed in the pond, 

 filling the air with gurgling croaks and filling 

 the water with endless strings of gelatine- 

 coated eggs enough to fill the whole pond 

 banks-full cf pollywogs, did not Mother Na- 

 ture step in and mercifully dispose of ninety- 

 nine per cent of them within a few days of 

 hatching, and set the rest of them to eating 

 each other industriously as they grew, till 

 every pollywog that was left might truthfully 

 sing with the cannibalistic mariner: 



