BAKER THE STORY TOLD BY HOP HIGH 391 



The other tadpoles Dlunp^ed into the water, too, and we had a 

 splendid time. At fiist we were afraid to venture far from our 

 weeds; but we soon became bolder and chased each other all over 

 the pond, every one tryinp^ to see which could make his tail wig^gle 

 the fastest. I beat in that game. 



After being in the water a while my looks began to change. 

 From the back of my head a membrane slowly spread over my 

 neck, covering my gills and making me appear to have no body 

 at all. I found, too, that I had a mouth and, with my strong 

 homy jaws, could bite off the ends of small plants. Those plants 

 tasted good for I was hungry all the time. 



The more I ate the larger and stronger I grew. Then a strange 

 thing happened. One day I found I had two long hind legs and 

 that, by using them, I could swim about very swiftly. 



Next my eyes began to grow large while my mouth widened 

 and widened until it stretched quite across my face. At the same 

 time my tail began to grow shorter and shorter. Then, suddenly, 

 a pair of front legs shot out from my shoulders. 



While these changes were taking place I kept longing to find an- 

 other home. Many times each day I went to the edge of the 

 pond and jumped out of the water. I found I liked the land very 

 much. Hundreds of my little friends came out of the pond, too. 



You see our gills had turned into lungs and we could breathe 

 more easily on land. When in the water, we had to keep rising 

 to the surface to get fresh air. 



Not long afterwards we lost our tails entirely. Of course we 

 didn't mind, for with our splendid legs, we really didn't need tails. 

 Besides, we were now ready and eager to say good-bye to the 

 pond. And, one night, a ereat crowd of us left our watery home 

 forever. 



Oh, such tiny creatures as we were! And how timid we felt! 

 We were so afraid that, for several hours, we kept close to the 

 pond's edge. When day dawned we were still more scared and 

 hid under the leaves and grass-blades. But at the coming of 

 darkness, again, we began to hop about a little. 



For two or three days we remained in hiding. Then, as nothmg 

 harmed us, we plucked up courage and started olT to seek our 

 fortunes. We did not go far, however, before we found that 

 there were enemies all about us. We discovered that snakes, 



