TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS. 389 



existence no one would suspect till in a particularly happy 

 moment he lifts his head and puffs out the gay brooch be- 

 neath. Sometimes, too, his coat changes to a much darker 

 hue, as though he had been essaying the lofty profession 

 of a chimney-sweep, and a Florida chimney-sweep at that, 

 such a dusty, untidy creature as he is at such times ! and 

 do you know what it means ? 



Just this : that his coat has become old-fashioned, and 

 he has ordered a new one, w^hich, unlike our own clothing, 

 is fitted on underneath the old, and some fine day, if you 

 watch closely, you will surely see this comical little fellow 

 deliberately pulling off* his coat and — selling it to the old- 

 clothes' man, do you suggest ? No, not that ; but — eating it I 



Our green friend is a true tree-frog, and right well does 

 he know how to sing when a rain is coming, and at other 

 times too ; he is a merry, happy creature, and can readily 

 be tamed so as to come at a signal and eat flies or other in- 

 sects from one's hand. 



He is not easily abashed nor diverted from his course. 

 AVe know of one little chirper who for months made it a 

 point of honor to take up his residence on the spout of the 

 toilet pitcher in our bed-room, and he did not care at all 

 how many " scares" he gave one occupant of the room, nor 

 how many hasty excursions to the rescue he inflicted on 

 the writer ; he merely twinkled his bright eyes at us, flung 

 out his slender little legs in a futile leap as the enveloping 

 towel descended over him, and then, when we dropped him 

 out of the door, hopped indignantly away. 



But for all that it would not be long before we heard a 

 voice, and such a voice, issuing from inside the pitcher, 

 deep or shallow, according to the water-line within. If it 

 came from "down in the depths," the resonance of that 

 voice was wonderful, and reminded us of the famous bull- 

 frog who ''lived in the well." 



