136 THE GOOSE AND THE GEESE. 



like their vagrant cousins, the tadpoles, who are hatched in the 

 water, and grow up anyhow and everyhow, without any care or 

 attention from anybody. Indeed (though you need not tell Mrs. 

 Toad I said so), if I were a tadpole I would much rather be a 

 common one. 



These little fellows lead the merriest life imaginable, wriggling 

 about in the clear water, or the nice, soft mud, frolicking and 

 chasing each other, and listening to the thrilling tales the big 

 frogs tell each other in the evenings. Whereas Mrs. Surinam 

 Toad's little fellows have to spend all their tadpolehood in their 

 mamma's dark little pockets, with no freedom and no society; and 

 they are not allowed to come out at all until their tails are gone 

 and their legs are come; in fact, until they are no longer tadpoles 

 but toads. Then they hop out, say good-by to their fond parent, 

 and go off to see the world, and to lay eggs in their turn; and Mrs. 

 Toad watches them as they go, and says, " Ah ! ISTow tJiat is what 

 I call a fine family! Brought up in the most genteel seclusion, 

 Avith no vulgar associates, and with every advantage that the most 

 refined toad could aspire to. I certainly have done my duty by my 

 children." 



Well, I suppose you have, Mrs. Toad, I suppose you have! But, 

 oh! deca^ — me! ! To think of having to be a toad all one's life, 

 and never to have had any fun when one was a tadpole! 



THE GOOSE AND THE GEESE. 



" Geoegie, do you want to go to the orchard with me while I 

 hang up the clothes?" 



"Oh! yes, yes, Barbie," said Georgie, clapping his hands. lie 

 was always glad to go to the orchard with some one; but he was- 



Bureau Nature Study y 



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