Cousins Under Their Skins 



Jay Traver 

 Willoughby, O. 



Characters 

 Mr. Frog Little Boy 



Mr. Toad . Little Boy's Mother 



Time, Season 



About five o'clock on a warm simimer day. 



Place 



Grassy bank beside a little pond. 



Enter Little Boy. 



Little Boy : I think I will lie down here and go to sleep for awhile. 



Mr. Frog : (Climbing up on bank out of pool) How-do-you-do, 

 little boy. 



Little Boy : Oh! how you frightened me! How do you do, Mr. 

 Frog. I thought frogs were afraid of boys. 



Mr. Frog: Only of big, noisy boys who throw sticks and stones. 

 You don't look like that sort of boy. 



Little Boy : Please tell me something about youself, Mr. Frog, 

 Have you always lived in the waterf 



Mr. Frog: Yes. Once I was a tadpole and I could not even 

 climb out on the bank then. 



Little Boy : How can you swim so fast? 



Mr. Frog : See these webs between my toes. And see how strong 

 my hind legs are. They help me to swim. 



Little Boy : Oh! look! Here cotnes Mr. Toad. 



Enter Mr. Toad.— 



Mr. Toad: Good afternoon, cousin Frog, Good afternoon, Little 

 Boy. 



Little Boy : Do you live in the water too, Mr. Toad? 



Mr. Toad: N^ot now. But I did once when I was a tadpole. 

 Even yet I like cool, damp, places. That is why I usually sleep all 

 day and come out towards night. 



Mr. Frog : But in the spring I often see you in the water. 



Mr. Toad: Yes. Toads come to lay their eggs in the water then. 

 The eggs are laid in strings, and soon the tadpoles hatch out from them. 



Mr. Frog : We lay our eggs in the water Ufo, but in masses not in 

 strings. 



Little Boy: What do you eat, Mr. Frog? 



147 



