FROGS, BOYS AND OTHER SMALL DEER. 183 



And yet my conscience smites me when I say 

 so, for have I not held entertaining conversations 

 with boys along this creek, and have they not 

 told me things about water-creatures that inter- 

 ested me much ? Sometimes the things were true, 

 sometimes false, but, at least, the boys believed 

 them, and did their best to impart to me their 

 knowledge. Let me not be ungrateful. 



Beside this pool one morning came a youth (I 

 think the same one who made the fearful threat 

 about the polliwog), and lamented to me that he 

 had been compelled to sell two frogs for a nickel 

 apiece. 



The subject of frogs was called to our rninds 

 by the sight of one dead in the pool. The boy 

 confessed that he had killed that frog, but he said 

 it was too nearly dead before for him to sell it. 



" Ought to have had a dime," said he,*referring 

 to the sale he made to the Frenchman. " / would 

 n't eat them for a hundred dollars. The French- 

 man says his brother eats them. He says they 're 

 nicer than any other meat." 



And it seemed to me that two nickels was 

 rather small pay for the labor of splashing around 

 in a pool catching two frogs, and then tramping 

 several miles to sell them. However the boy was 

 not discouraged. The pool had been clear when 

 he caught the two, and he thought he had seen 

 two others in it. He was coming back after them. 



And then ensued a talk on the prices of frogs. 



