FROGS, BOYS, AND OTHER SMALL DEER. 179 



Pop ! pop ! pop ! in a succession of splashes, 

 go the frogs into the water, tQl the sound resem- 

 bles a small cannonading extending up the stream 

 in honor of one's coming. Small idea have the 

 frogs of welcoming any one, 'however. Sunning 

 themselves on the banks, they hear the sound of 

 footsteps, and hastily arise and throw themselves 

 beneath the flood. Good reason, too, have they 

 for such cautiousness. One boy informed me that 

 he made sometimes seventy-five cents per day in 

 catching frogs for a Frenchman, and on a remark- 

 able day this boy earned a dollar. No wonder the 

 frogs flee. 



There is something pleasantly meditative about 

 a frog that sits on a bank. One feels inclined to 

 sit down beside him and inquire the subject of his 

 meditations. Why should the heralds of the 

 Middle Ages have used the frog as a symbol of 

 degradation ? I would not reveal such a fact as 

 that to froggy, if I sat beside him. I would, in- 

 stead, point out to him the blessedness of the fact 

 that there are no pike in this brook, and quote to 

 him Izaak Walton's words : " It is observed that 

 the pike will eat venomous things, as some kinds 

 of frogs are, and yet live without being harmed 

 by them ; for, as some say, he has in him a nat- 

 ural balsam or antidote against all poison." Did 

 not Queen Elizabeth call Francis of Anjou her 

 " Frog " ? It was not complimentary to Francis' 

 looks, but froggy would not understand the sar- 

 casm. 



