Chapter 2

"If Bully and Bawly were here they'd go," said their mamma. "I wish they'd come. Oh, here they are now," she went on, as she looked out of the window and saw the two frog boys coming home from school. "Hurry!" she called to them. "I want you to go to the store."

"All right," they both answered, and they were so polite about it that Mrs. No-Tail gave them each a penny, though, of course, they would have gone without that, for they always liked to help their mamma.

"I want some sugar, and molasses, and bread, and butter, and some corn meal, and bacon and watercress salad," said the mother frog, and Bully and Bawly each took a basket in which to carry the things. Then they hopped on toward the store.

"I'm going to buy marbles with my penny," said Bully.

"And I'm going to buy a whistle with mine," said Bawly.

Well, they got to the grocery, all right, and the cow lady who kept it gave them the things their mamma wanted. Then they went to the toy store and Bully got his marbles, and Bawly his whistle, which made a very loud noise.

Now I'm very sorry to be obliged to tell it, but something is going to happen to Bully and Bawly very soon. In fact, I think it is going to take place at once. Just excuse me a moment, will you, until I look out of the window and see if the alligator is coming. Yes, there he is. He just got off the trolley car. The conductor put him off because he had the wrong transfer.

So, all at once, as Bully and Bawly were hopping along through the woods, this alligator that I was telling you about jumped out at them from under a prickly briar bush. Right at them he jumped, and he was a very savage alligator, for he had gotten loose out of the circus, where he belonged, and he had been tramping around without anything to eat for a long time, so he was very hungry.

"Now, I see where I'm going to have a nice dinner," the alligator said to himself, as he jumped out at Bully and Bawly.

But those two frog boys were smart little fellows, and they were always looking around for danger. So, as soon as the alligator made a jump at them, they also leaped to one side, and the unpleasant creature didn't get them.

"Oh, you just wait! I'll have you in a minute!" the alligator cried, and he opened his mouth so wide that it went all the way back to his ears, and the top of his head nearly flew off.

"We haven't time to wait," said Bully with a laugh, as he hopped on with his basket of groceries.

"No, we must get back home in time for supper," spoke Bawly. "So we'll have to leave you," and on he hipped and skipped and hopped with his basket.

Those frog boys didn't really think that that alligator could reach them, for he was so big and clumsy-looking that it didn't seem as if he could run very fast. But he could, and the first thing Bully and Bawly knew, that most unprepossessing creature, with a smile that went away around to his ears, was close behind them and gnashing his teeth at them.

"Oh, hop, Bully, hop!" cried Bawly in great fright.

"Sure, I'll hop!" answered his brother. "You hop, too!"

Well, they both hopped as fast as they could, but on account of the baskets of groceries which they had they couldn't hop as fast as usual. The alligator saw this, and after them he crawled, and several times he nearly had them by their tails. Oh, no, excuse me, if you please, frogs don't have tails. I was thinking of tadpoles.

"Oh, just wait until I catch you!" cried the alligator, snapping his teeth together.

But Bully and Bawly didn't wait. On they hopped, as fast as they could, hoping to get away. And would you ever believe that an alligator could be so mean as this one was? For he chased Bully and Bawly right up a steep hill. You know it's hard to walk up hill, and harder still to hop, so Bully and Bawly were soon tired. But do you s'pose that alligator cared? Not a bit of it!

Right after them he kept crawling, faster and faster.

Bully and Bawly hopped as swiftly as they could, but the alligator kept getting nearer and nearer to them, for he was big and strong, and didn't mind the hill. They could hear his savage jaws gnashing together, and they trembled so that Bully almost spilled the molasses out of his basket and Bawly nearly dropped the granulated sugar.

Well, finally the two frog boys were at the top of the hill, and they were very thankful, thinking that they could now get away from the alligator, when they suddenly saw that the hill came to an end, and fell over the edge of a great precipice just like the Niagara waterfall, only there wasn't any water there, of course.

"Oh, we can't go any farther," cried Bully, coming to a stop.

"No," said his brother, "we can't jump down that awful gully. But look, Bully, there is another hill over there," and he pointed across the big, open space. "If we could jump across from this hill to that hill, the alligator couldn't get us."

"Oh, but it's a terrible big jump," said Bully, and indeed it was; about as wide as a big river. "But we've got to do it!" cried Bully, "for here comes the terrible beast!"

The alligator was almost upon them. He opened his mouth to grab them with his teeth, when Bully, spreading out his legs, and taking a firm hold of his grocery basket, gave a great, big jump. Through the air he sailed, over the deep valley, and he landed safely on the other hill. Then Bawly did the same, and with one most tremendous, extemporaneous and extraordinary jump, he landed close beside his brother, and the alligator couldn't get either of them because he couldn't jump across the chasm.

Oh, but he was an angry alligator though! He gnashed his teeth and wiggled his tail and even cried big round tears. Nearly all alligators cry little square tears, but even round ones didn't do a bit of good. Then Bully threw a marble at the savage creature, and hit him on the nose, and Bawly blew his whistle so loud, that the alligator thought a policeman, or postman, was coming, and he turned around and ran away, and the frog boys went on safely home with their baskets of groceries and had a good supper.

Now in case that alligator doesn't chase after me, and chew up my typewriter to make mincemeat of it for the wax doll, I'll tell you in the next story about Grandpa Croaker digging a well.

STORY V

GRANDPA CROAKER DIGS A WELL

It happened, once upon a time when Mrs. No-Tail, the frog lady, went to the pump to get some water for supper, that a little fish jumped out of the pump spout and nearly bit her on the nose.

"Ha! That is very odd," she said. "There must be fish in our well, and in that case I think we had better have a new one."

So that night, when Mr. No-Tail came home from the wallpaper factory, where he stepped into ink and then hopped all over white paper to make funny patterns on it--that night, I say, Mrs. No-Tail said to her husband:

"I think we will have to get a new well." Then she told him about the fish from the pump nearly biting her, and Mr. No-Tail remarked:

"Yes, I think we had better have a new place to get our water, for the fish in the old well may drink it all up."

"Well, well!" exclaimed Grandpa Croaker in such a deep bass voice that he made the dishpan on the gas stove rattle as loudly as if Bully or Bawly were drumming on it with a wishbone from the Thanksgiving turkey. "Let me dig the well," went on the old gentleman frog. "I just love to shovel the dirt, and I can dig a well so deep that no fish will ever get into it."

"Very well," said Mr. No-Tail. "You may start in the morning, and Bully and Bawly can help you, as it will be Saturday and there is no school."

Well, the next morning Grandpa Croaker started in. He marked a nice round circle on the ground in the back yard, because he wanted a round well, and not a square one, you see; and then he began to dig. At first there was nothing for Bully and Bawly to do, as when he was near the top of the well their Grandpa could easily throw the dirt out himself. But when he had dug down quite a distance it was harder work, to toss up the dirt, so Grandpa Croaker told the boys to get a rope, and a hook and some pails.

The hook was fastened to one end of the rope, and then a pail was put on the hook. Then the pail was lowered into the well, down to where Grandpa Croaker was working. He filled the pail with dirt, and Bully and Bawly hauled it up and emptied it.

"Oh, this is lots of fun!" exclaimed Bully, as he and his brother pulled on the rope. "It's as much fun as playing baseball."

"I think so, too," agreed Bawly. Then Sammie Littletail, the rabbit boy, came along, and so did Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dogs. They wanted to help pull up the dirt, so Bully and Bawly let them after Sammie had given the frog brothers a nice marble, and Peetie and Jackie each a stick of chewing gum.

Grandpa Croaker kept on digging the well, and the frog boys and their friends pulled up the dirt, and pretty soon the hole in the ground was so deep and dark that, by looking up straight, from down at the bottom of it, the old gentleman frog could see the stars, and part of the moon, in the sky, even if it was daylight.

Then he dug some more, and, all of a sudden, his shovel went down into some water, and then Grandpa Croaker knew that the well was almost finished. He dug out a little more earth, in came more water, wetting his feet, and then the frog well-digger cried:

"I've struck water! I've struck water!"

"Hurrah!" shouted Bawly.

"Hurray! Hurray!" exclaimed Bully, and they were so happy that they danced up and down. Then Sammie Little-Tail and Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow grew so excited and delighted that they ran off to tell all their friends about Grandpa Croaker digging a well. That left Bully and Bawly all alone up at the edge of the big hole in the ground, at the bottom of which was their grandpa.

"Let's have another little dance!" suggested Bully.

"No," replied Bawly, "let's jump down the well and have a drink of the new water that hasn't any fishes in it."

So, without thinking what they were doing, down they leaped into the well, almost failing on Grandpa Croaker's bald head, and carrying down with them the rope, by which they had been pulling up the pails of dirt. Into the water they popped, and each one took a big drink.

"Well, now you've done it!" cried Grandpa Croaker, as he leaned on his shovel and looked at his two grandsons.

"Why, what is the matter?" asked Bully, splashing some water on Bawly's nose.

"Yes. All we did was to jump down here," added Bawly. "What's wrong?"

"Why that leaves no one above on the ground to help me get up," said the old gentleman frog. "I was depending on you to haul me up by the rope, and here you jump down, and pull the rope with you. It's as bad as when Uncle Wiggily was on the roof, only he was up and couldn't get down, and we're down and can't get up."

"Oh, I think I can jump to the top of the well and take the rope with me. If I can't take this rope I'll get another and pull you both up," said Bully. So he hopped and he hopped, but he couldn't hop to the top of the well. Every time he tried it, he fell back into the water, ker-slash!

"Let me try," said his brother. But it was just the same with Bawly. Back he sploshed-splashed into the well-water, getting all wet.

"Now we'll never get out of here," said Grandpa Croaker sadly. "I wish you boys would think a little more, and not do things so quickly."

"We will--next time," promised Bawly as he gave another big jump, but he came nowhere near the top of the well.

Then it began to look as if they would have to stay down there forever, for no one came to pull them out.

"Let's call for help," suggested Bully. So he and Bawly called as loud as they could, and so did Grandpa Croaker. But the well was so deep, and their voices sounded so loud and rumbling, coming out of the hole in the ground, that every one thought it was thunder. And the animal people feared it would rain, so they all ran home, and no one thought of grandpa and the two frog boys in the deep well.

But at last along came Alice Wibblewobble, and, being a duck, she didn't mind a thunder storm. So she didn't run away, and she heard Grandpa Croaker and Bully and Bawly calling for help at the bottom of the well. She asked what was the trouble, and Bully told her what had happened.

"Oh, you silly boys, to jump down a well!" exclaimed Alice. "But never fear, I'll help you up." So they never feared, and Alice got a rope and lowered it down to them, and then, with the help of her brother Jimmie and her sister Lulu, she pulled all three frogs up from the well, and they lived happy for ever after, and drank the water that had no fishes in it.

Now if the faucet in the kitchen sink doesn't turn upside down, and squirt the water on the ceiling and into the cat's eye, I'll tell you next about Papa No-Tail in trouble.

STORY VI

PAPA N

Papa No-tail, the frog gentleman, was working away in the wallpaper factory one day, when something quite strange happened to him, and if you all sit right nice and quiet, as my dear old grandmother used to say, I'll tell you all about it, from the beginning to the end, and I'll even tell you the middle part, which some people leave out, when they tell stories.

Papa No-Tail would dip his four feet, which were something like hands, in the different colored inks at the factory. There was red ink, and blue ink, and white ink, and black ink, and sky-purple-green ink, and also that newest shade, skilligimink color, which Sammie Littletail once dyed his Easter eggs. After he had his feet nicely covered with the ink, Papa No-Tail would hop all over pieces of white paper to make funny patterns on them. Then they would be ready to paper a room, and make it look pretty.

"I think that is very well done," said the old gentleman frog to himself as he looked at one roll of paper on which he had made a picture of a mouse chasing a big lion. "Now I think I will make a pattern of a doggie standing on his left ear." And he did so, and very fine it was, too.

"Now, while I'm waiting for the ink to dry," said Mr. No-Tail, "I'll lie down and take a nap." So he went fast, fast asleep on a long piece of the wall paper that was stretched out on the floor, and this was the beginning of his trouble.

For, all at once, a puff of wind--not a cream puff, you understand, but a wind puff--came in the window, and rolled up the wallpaper in a tight little roll, and the worst of it was that Papa No-Tail was asleep inside. Yes, fast, fast asleep, and he never knew that he was wrapped up, just like a stick of chewing gum; only you mustn't ever chew gum in school, you know.

Well, time went on, and the clock ticked, and Papa No-Tail still slept. Then a man looked in the window of the wallpaper factory and, seeing no one there, he thought he would take a roll of paper home with him, to paste on his little boy's bedroom.

"The next time I come past here, perhaps some one will be in the office," the man said, "and then I can pay them for the paper," for he wanted to be very honest, you see. "I'll get Uncle Butter, the goat, to paste the paper on the wall for me," said the man. Then he reached inside the room, and what do you think? Why he picked up the very piece of wallpaper that was wrapped around Papa Chip-Chip--Oh, no, excuse me! I mean Papa No-Tail. Yes, the man picked up that roll, with Bully's and Bawly's papa inside, and away he went with it, and the old gentleman frog was still sound asleep.

Now this is about the middle of his trouble, just as I said I'd tell you, but we haven't gotten to the end yet, though we will in a little while.

Home that man went, as fast as he could go, and on his way he stopped at Uncle Butter's office.

"I have a little wallpapering I want done at my house," the man said to the old gentleman goat, "and I wish you'd come right along with me and do it. I have the paper here."

"To be sure I will," said Uncle Butter. So he got his pail of paste, and gave Billie and Nannie Goat a little bit on some brown paper, just like jam, and they liked it very much. The goat paper-hanger took his shears, and his brushes, and his stepladders, tying them on his horns, and away he went with the man.

Pretty soon they came to the house where the man lived, and his little boy was there, and very delighted he was when he heard that he was to have some new paper on his room.

"May I watch you put it on?" he asked Uncle Butter.

"Yes," answered the old gentleman goat, "if you don't step in the paste, and spoil the carpet."

The little boy promised that he wouldn't, and Uncle Butter went to work. First he got his sticky stuff all ready, and then he made a little table on which to lay out and paste the paper.

"Now, we'll cut the roll into strips and fasten it on the wall good and tight, so that it won't fall off in the middle of the night and scare you," said Uncle Butter. Then he reached for the roll of paper, and, mind you, Papa No-Tail was still asleep inside of it. But all at once, just as the paper-hanger goat was about to pick up the roll, Mr. No-Tail awakened and was quite surprised to discover where he was.

"My, I never would have believed it," he said, and he wiggled his legs and arms and made a great rustling sound inside the roll of paper like a fly in a sugar bag.

"Hello! What's that?" cried Uncle Butter, jumping back so quickly that he upset his paste-pot.

"What's the matter?" asked the little boy in glad surprise.

"Why, there's something inside that paper!" cried the goat. "See, it's moving! There must be a fairy inside!"

Surely enough, the paper was rolling and twisting around on the floor in a most remarkable manner, for Papa No-Tail inside was wriggling and twisting, and trying his best to get out. But the paper was wound around him too tightly, and he couldn't get loose.

"Oh, do you think it's a fairy?" asked the little boy eagerly, for he loved the dear creatures, and wanted to see one.

"Let me out! Oh, please let me out!" suddenly cried Papa No-Tail just then.

"Of course it's a fairy, my boy!" exclaimed Uncle Butter. "Didn't you hear it call? Oh, I'm going right away from here! I've pasted all kinds of paper, but never before have I handled fairy paper, and I'm afraid to begin now."

He started to run out of the room but his foot slipped in the paste, and down he fell, and his little table fell on top of him, and the stepladder was twisted in his horns. And Papa No-Tail was trying harder than ever to get loose, and the roll of wallpaper rolled right toward Uncle Butter.

"Don't catch me! Please, don't catch me!" the goat called to the fairy he supposed was inside. "I never did anything to you!"

Faster and faster rolled the paper, for Mr. No-Tail was wiggling quite hard now, and he was crying to be let out. Then, all of a sudden, the paper with the frog in, rolled close to the little boy. The boy was brave, and he loved fairies, so he opened the roll, and out hopped Mr. No-Tail, being very glad indeed to get loose, for it was quite warm inside there.

"Oh my! Was that you in the paper?" asked Uncle Butter, solemnly, sitting in the middle of the floor, on a lot of paste.

"It was," said Papa No-Tail, as he helped the goat to get up.

"Well, I never heard tell of such a thing in all my life! Never!" exclaimed the goat, when the frog gentleman told him all about it. Then Uncle Butter pasted the paper on the wall, and Papa No-Tail hopped home, and that's the end of the story, just as I promised it would be.

Now in case the pussy cat doesn't wash the puppy dog's face with the cork from the ink bottle and make his nose black, I'll tell you on the next page about Bully playing marbles.

STORY VII

BULLY N

It happened one day that, as Bully No-Tail, the frog boy, was walking along with his bag of marbles going clank-clank in his pocket, he met Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels.

"Hello, Bully!" called the two brothers. "Do you want to have a game of marbles?"

"Of course I do," answered Bully. "I just bought some new ones. 'First shot agates!'"

"First shot!" yelled Billie, right after Bully.

"First shot!" also cried Johnnie, almost at the same time.

"Well, I guess we're about even," spoke Bully, as he opened his marble bag to look inside. "Now, how are we going to tell who will shoot first?"

"I'll tell you," proposed Billie. "We'll each throw a marble up into the air, and the one whose comes down first will shoot first."

Well, the other two animal boys thought that was fair, so they tossed their marble shooters up into the air. Billie only sent his up a little way, for then he knew it would come down first, but Johnnie and Bully didn't think of this, and they threw their shooters up as high as they could. And, of course, their marbles were so much longer coming down to the ground again.

"Oh, ho! Here's mine!" cried Billie. "I'm to shoot first."

"And here's mine," added Johnnie, a little later, as his marble came down.

"Yes, but where's mine?" asked Bully, and they all listened carefully to tell when Bully's shooter would fall down. But the funny part of it was that it didn't come.

"Say, did you throw it up to the sky?" asked Billie surprised like.

"Because, if you did, it won't come down until Fourth of July," added Johnnie.

"No, I didn't throw it as high as that," replied the frog boy. "But perhaps Dickie Chip-Chip, the sparrow boy, is flying around up there, and he may have taken it in his bill for a joke."

So they looked up toward the clouds as far as they could, but no little sparrow boy did they see.

"Well, we'll have a game of marbles, anyhow," said Bully at length. "I have another shooter."

So he and Billie and Johnnie made a ring in the dirt, and put some marbles in the centre.

Then they began to play, and Billie shot first, then Johnnie, and last of all Bully. And all the while the frog boy was wondering what had happened to his first marble. Now, a very queer thing had happened to it, and you'll soon hear all about it.

Billie and Johnnie had each missed hitting any marbles, and when it came Bully's turn he took careful aim, with his second-best shooter, a red and blue one.

"Whack-bang!" That's the way Bully's shooter hit the marbles in the ring, scattering them all over, and rolling several outside.

"Say, are you going to knock 'em all out?" asked Billie.

"That's right! Leave some for us," begged Johnnie.

"Wait until I have one more trial," went on Bully, for you see he had two shots on account of being lucky with his first one and knocking some marbles from the ring.

Then he went to look for his second-best shooter, for it had rolled away, but he couldn't find it. It had completely, teetotally, mysteriously and extraordinarily disappeared.

"I'm sure it rolled over here," said Bully as he poked around in the grass near a big bush. "Please help me look for it, fellows."

So Billie and Johnnie helped Bully look, but they couldn't find the second shooter that the frog boy had lost.

"You two go on playing and I'll hunt for the marble," said Bully after a while, so he searched along in the grass, and, as he did so, he dropped a nice glass agate out of his bag. He stooped to pick it up, but before he could get his toes on it something that looked like a big chicken's bill darted out of the prickly briar bush and gobbled up the marble.

"Oh!" cried Bully in fright, jumping back, "I wonder if that was a snake?"

"No, I'm not a snake," was the answer. "I'm a bird," and then out from behind the bush came a great, big Pelican bird.

"Did--did you take my marble?" asked Bully timidly.

"I did!" cried the Pelican bird, snapping his bill together just like a big pair of scissors. "I ate the first one after it fell to the ground near me, and I ate the second one that you shot over here. They're good--marbles are! I like 'em. Give me some more!"

The bird snapped his beak again, and Bully jumped back. As he did so the marbles in his pocket rattled, and the Pelican heard them.