A RAINY DAY 



229 



goes to no school save that of daily experience. 

 To-day a fish may teach him how to dodge or his 

 own grandfather give him a lesson in deep diving, 

 but in both cases it is to escape making a meal 

 for his teachers that he dodges or dives. The main 

 business of the day is eating or being eaten. If 

 he escapes the latter for six weeks or two months, 

 the common frog finds himself possessed of two 

 hind legs later of two front ones. The bullfrog 

 develops more slowly. His broad flat tail, so valu- 

 able in early youth, stays on and on, until it is a 

 wonder that he does not in the pride of his young 

 froghood take measures to dispose of it. But for 

 this badge of youth, could he not leap away with 

 others of his kindred to hunt insects on grassy 

 banks, or sun himself "with arms akimbo" on quiet 

 lily-pads? 



It is just as well that they must wait, for inside 

 their shiny wet coats changes are going on which 

 will fit them for the higher sphere. Lungs for 

 air-breathing are fast replacing the gills which did 

 duty in the tadpole stage. The young frog fre- 

 quently pokes his nose out of the water as his 

 lungs grow more lung-like, to try them. The 

 mouth, too, must widen and the eyes grow larger 

 and more bulging. When all is complete, the tail 

 will no longer stand in the way. 



Did you ever watch wearily for a tadpole's tail to 

 drop off? The children of to-day are familiar with 

 the gradual absorption of the tail and can even 

 tell the story of how the "white blood corpuscles 

 carry away the material which had formed the tail 



