Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
on them? Did you ever see one sitting on a toadstool ? ” 
He was much disconcerted when I said I never had, and 
declared he would watch carefully for the sight. When I told 
him they used to be called also sometimes “ Todes-hattes,” 
the big ones do for stools and the little ones for hats, 
he decided. Americans call them Frogstools. Spenser 
talks of the “ grieslie Todestoole and loathed Paddocks 
lording on the same.” In Roumania toads are called 
“ witches’ servants.” In folklore, though toads are of evil 
repute generally, yet they sometimes bring luck. In Tus- 
cany it is unlucky to kill a toad ; it may be an enchanted 
prince or princess. An old Scots term for a fat little child 
used to be “ a fat Podle,” which was also used for a tadpole. 
There is a delightful Indian proverb which says, “ A tad- 
pole caught by one’s own child is deemed a fine fish.” 
Grimm has an amusing folk-tale about an old fat frog who 
befriended a younger son on his travels, and when she heard 
he was in search of a beautiful princess to take home, gave 
him a small frog. I told Boy how the toad was said to 
carry a precious jewel in his head, called a Toadstone or 
Bufonite, and he was much interested and all agog to find 
a toad. But they are not very common here, though I did 
see one the other day in the Rose-garden. A Toadstone 
used to be thought a preservative against poison, and was 
set in jewellery; it was generally yellow and green in 
colour or sometimes black. It was worn sometimes set 
in rings. Erasmus mentions a Bufonite dedicated to Our 
Lady of Walsingham. It has now, I believe, been dis- 
covered that Toadstones are the fossil teeth of some ante- 
diluvian fish. Paddockstanes was the old name. Toads 
are said to make interesting pets. The legend that they are 
venomous has probably arisen from the fact they exude a 
sort of irritating liquid if touched. Dogs are said to get 
swelled mouths if they seize toads. I knew a lady who had 
a toad as a pet, and used to keep it in her room and let it 
hop about on the table and eat out of her hand. Boy 
found some dear little grey Pezizas in a niche among some 
fallen branches ; he calls them fairy Tam O’Shanters. In 
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