78 LOCUSTS AND WILD HONEY 



fallen in showers. There is no credible report that 

 it has ever yet rained pitchforks, but many other 

 curious things have fallen. Fish, flesh, and fowl, 

 and substances that were neither, have been picked 

 up by veracious people after a storm. Manna, blood, 

 and honey, frogs, newts, and fish- worms, are among 

 the curious things the clouds are supposed to yield. 

 If the clouds scooped up their water as the flying 

 express train does, these phenomena could be easier 

 explained. I myself have seen curious things. Rid- 

 ing along the road one day on the heels of a vio- 

 lent summer tempest, I saw the ground swarming 

 with minute hopping creatures. I got out and cap- 

 tured my hands full. They proved to be tree-toads, 

 many of them no larger than crickets, and none of 

 them larger than a bumblebee. There seemed to 

 be thousands of them. The mark of the tree-toad 

 was the round, flattened ends of their toes. I took 

 some of them home, but they died the next day. 

 Where did they come from 1 I imagined the violent 

 wind swept them off* the trees in the woods to wind- 

 ward of the road. But this is only a guess; maybe 

 they crept out of the ground, or from under the wall 

 near by, and were out to wet their jackets. 



I have never yet heard of a frog coming down 

 chimney in a shower. Some circumstantial evi- 

 dence may be pretty conclusive, Thoreau says, as 

 when you find a trout in the milk; and if you find 

 a frog or toad behind the fire-board immediately 

 after a shower, you may well ask him to explain 

 himself. . 



