prints of the cows along the edge of the hole. 

 Just as fast as the water disappeared in these 

 foot-prints, the tails of the tadpoles were ab- 

 sorbed and legs formed, and they hopped away 

 some of them a week before their brothers, 

 that were hatched at the same time, but who 

 had stayed in the middle of the pond, where the 

 deeper water allowed them a longer babyhood 

 for the use of their tails. So swiftly, under pres- 

 sure, can nature work with this adaptable body 

 of the toad ! 



Long before the sun-baked mud began to 

 crack these young ones had gone where? And 

 whence came their parents, and whither went 

 they? When will they return? 



[134] 



