CHAPTER XXIII

MR. HOP TOAD HOPS IN

SHE worked away very hard for half an hour.

“My,” she thought, “this is such warm work I guess I’ll take a little rest,” and she sat down under the tree nearby.

She was just going to sleep when she thought she heard someone speak. Yes, it was Feather Flop, and he seemed to be arguing with someone.

“He wouldn’t talk to a stranger,” thought Mary Frances, “I wonder who it is. I don’t dare peep, for fear they’ll stop talking if they see me.”

Pretty soon the voices came nearer.

“I tell you,” Feather Flop was saying in a boastful tone, “I tell you I am of the greatest benefit to the garden.”

“If so, why so?” The question was asked in a funny, croaking voice.

“If so, why so?” mimicked Feather Flop. “Because it is so. So there!”

“Yes, certainly, if saying so makes it so,” replied the voice. “But it is not so in my opinion. For instance—pardon me till I catch that fly—how many snails do you imagine I have eaten to-day?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Feather Flop; “but I do know this. I know I am the biggest benefit to the garden.”

“I beg pardon, sir,” answered the other; “I think I can easily prove I am the biggest benefit to the garden.”

“Cluck! Caw!” exclaimed Feather Flop. “You mean you are the biggest toad in the puddle, Hoppy, you poor old toad!”

“Ho! Ho!” thought Mary Frances. “So it’s a hop toad! I just believe it’s that big fellow that lives under the stepping stone. I think I’d know him. I believe I’ll peep!”

She looked cautiously around the tree. “It is! It is that same fellow I really believe! My, I wish I could ask him some questions!”

“Indeed, I do not mean anything of the kind, Mr. Feather Flop,” retorted the hop toad, and Mary Frances could see his throat swell with indignation. “I mean that I am actually and truly one of the most helpful living things to have in a garden.”

“Now, now, don’t get angry,” begged Feather Flop, “I want to hear about that! I want to find out, Hoppy, how you are more beneficial to the garden than I am.”

“Well,” answered the hop toad, blinking his eyes with a satisfied smile, “it’s this way: suppose I begin with the baby toads——”

“A crow told me they taste very good,” interrupted Feather Flop.

“For shame!” whispered Mary Frances. “Isn’t that awful of Feather Flop!”

The rooster must have heard her, for he suddenly bowed his head, saying, “Oh, I beg your pardon, Hoppy—really I do! Please excuse me!”

“I suppose you don’t know any better manners,” answered the hop toad, “so I’ll have to excuse you, and I’ll tell you—if you don’t interrupt—

THE STORY OF THE HOP TOAD

My mother told me that one lovely day early in May she awoke from her winter’s nap. Oh, yes, that’s what we do in winter—sleep in the ground.

Well, my mother awoke, and went happily hopping down to the meadow pond to lay some eggs. Perhaps you don’t know them when you see them—toads’ eggs. They look like tiny black pills in strings of transparent jelly. This jelly either drops to the bottom of the pond or fastens to water weeds.

TADPOLES

The eggs grow larger and larger and pretty soon become baby toads, or tadpoles.

Well, I was one of the tadpoles that spring, and my brothers and sisters and I soon ate some of the jelly, and then some of the delicious slime in the pond.

Yes, we lived in the water and breathed somewhat the way fishes do.

When we were about ten days old, our mouths grew much stronger and our jaws grew horny so that we could bite off pieces of plants.

How lovely it was! I can remember now how cool and pleasant it felt to swim about in the pond. We had long flat tails which we used for swimming.

Now, Feather Flop, if you interrupt again I shall not finish my story! No, we didn’t eat our tails; of course not. Our tails were absorbed into our bodies to help with their growth.

When we were about an inch long we had but stump tails, and found we had to come to the surface of the water for more air every day, we decided we were no longer tadpoles, but real hop toads. We swam to the shore of the pond and hopped away.

TOADS’ ENEMIES

Many of my little brothers and sisters, alas! were eaten by snakes, and—yes, Feather Flop—gobbled up by crows.

No, Feather Flop, dogs wouldn’t bite us, because—do you see the warts on my back? They are very useful to me. When I want to disgust an enemy, I can send out of those warts a disagreeable, biting secretion, and I am dropped pretty quickly.

No, of course, we cannot make warts on people’s hands. No toad ever did anything of the kind! It’s a horrible untruth. Certainly we seem cold to people’s touch. That’s because our blood is of the same temperature as the air. Their blood is warmer.

Well, as I said, almost any enemy drops one of us grown-up toads quickly but snakes! They don’t seem to mind us at all. Ugh! when I see one I either hop away with all my might, or I bury myself in the earth. No, Feather Flop, I can’t teach you how! I do it with my hind legs. See how I can kick!

There are two more ways in which we escape our enemies.

In the first place, if you notice carefully, you will observe that I am almost the color of the leaves on which I am sitting. If I should hop out there on the path, my coat would change in a short time to nearly the color of the path. Oh, I do not care to try it now. The sun is shining there, and I certainly do not like sunlight and heat! The fact of our color being nearly the shade of our surroundings prevents enemies from seeing us. Yes, you are right, we shed our skins several times a year, and we swallow them. We generally do this when no one is looking. The other way we escape notice is the fact that we feed mostly at night, while our enemies are asleep.

HOW TOADS HELP THE GARDEN

Speaking of food, Feather Flop—have you eaten any of those delicious tent caterpillars? No? Well, you should try some. Don’t you like them? They stick to your throat? Oh, I didn’t know that, but I’ve noticed that you didn’t seem to eat them, nor “thousand-leggers.” That’s the reason I said I was of more benefit than you to the garden.

Just listen until I tell you what I had this early morning for supper. No, not breakfast! I told you I feed at night. Early morning brings my supper time! Well, these are what I had: [F ]6 cutworms 5 thousand leg worms 6 sow bugs 9 ants 1 weevil 1 ground beetle

We eat also snails, injurious beetles, grasshoppers, worms, potato bugs, and lots more of harmful creatures. Well, ants and spiders may be useful, but ants are a question, and we eat few spiders. Spiders are lots of fun to catch, though. See, there is one! See how my tongue shot out at him? My tongue is fastened to the lower jaw at the front of my mouth. You didn’t see it? Well, I suppose we toads do use our tongues pretty quickly. They have a sticky substance spread over them, so we’re pretty certain to make our “catch.”

“Now, Feather Flop, I think I’ve told you almost everything. Is there anything else you’d like to know?”

Mary Frances had been listening with all her ears.

“My, there are things I’d like to know,” she thought. “How I wish he’d talk to me!”

“No,” said Feather Flop in a crestfallen voice, “I don’t think of any. I certainly must acknowledge that you are usefuller than I thought!”

“Thanks! All right!” replied the toad, taking a hop.

“Hold on, please, Hoppy!” Mary Frances ventured to call.

The toad turned.

“Please, Mr. Hop Toad,” she begged, “please will you tell me something? I’ve overheard your wonderful story. If it is not too inquisitive, may I ask why your throat puffs all the time?”

“Certainly, certainly,” croaked the toad, “my voice is hoarse, Miss, but I’ll do my best to answer. You see, we toads have no ribs to use when we breathe, so we have to swallow every bit of air we use.”

“Oh,” said Mary Frances, “that is it. I am so much obliged to you for telling me. Here is a fish-worm—or do you call them angle-worms, or earth-worms?—for you!”

“A fish-worm!” exclaimed the toad. “That is fine. Throw it down, please. No, that is the wrong end toward me. Fish-worms wear rough rings along their bodies which hurt the throat if swallowed the wrong way foremost. They’re pretty large to get down, so I may have to rub it down my throat with my hands.”

This the funny little toad did, and after getting it down, patted its little stomach. “My, it was so good. I shut my eyes while I swallowed!” he said.

Mary Frances laughed outright. “I’m glad I gave you a treat,” she said. “I wish I knew something else I could do to make you happy.”

“Then just take a stick and scratch my back, please.”

Mary Frances did as requested.

Feather Flop looked on all the while without a word. At length he blurted out, “You told me, little Miss, I think, that fish-worms were good for the garden—that they stir the soil and make it light and porous. I’ve never eaten one since you told me that!”

He looked scornfully at the toad.

Mary Frances smiled. “Oh, Feather Flop, indeed I thank you, but you see, we don’t need so many of them. You could take one once in a while.”

“I must be going,” said the toad, “and I thank you, Miss. You’re much more polite and kind than some people I’ve known!” glancing at the rooster.

“He means the boy that stoned him,” said Feather Flop.

“Excuse me, I did not refer to him,” said the toad; “but really, boys are terribly hard on us! And think of all we do to help them. We eat the dreadfully destructive insects.”

“I wonder if my brother Billy ever—” began Mary Frances.

“No, not any more,” said the toad. “I’ve lived here in this garden five years and it’s over a year since he’s troubled any of us.”

“He never will again,” promised Mary Frances. “I shall certainly tell him your story.”

“Good-bye, and thank you very much!” suddenly exclaimed the toad, hopping away very rapidly.

“Oh,” called Mary Frances, “I want to ask you something else. Won’t you talk to us again?”

This time the toad did not turn around nor answer a word, but hopped more rapidly than ever.

“I can catch him!” exclaimed Feather Flop, “and I’ll peck him as hard as ever I can, too, for treating you that way!”

“Don’t you dare, Feather Flop,” called Mary Frances, running after him. “I’m ashamed of you!” catching him up.

“Oh, dear,” sighed Feather Flop, “and I wanted to help you so much! I am always doing something wrong!”

“Listen, Feather Flop,” explained Mary Frances, “that probably frightened him so he’ll never speak again.”

“I’ll be to blame for that, too,” mourned Feather Flop. “Oh, I’m sorry, so sorry.”

“Never mind, my friend,” said Mary Frances; “I appreciate the kindness you meant to show even if you made a mistake.”

“Are you sure you forgive me, little Miss?” asked the rooster.

“Quite sure,” answered Mary Frances. “But I can’t promise about the hop toad!”

“I don’t care a hop about Hoppy,” said the rooster, “just so you forgive me.”

“I guess a rooster, even if as clever as Feather Flop, can’t understand such things,” mused Mary Frances to herself.

“Please be polite to him for my sake, then,” she said.

“I will! indeed I will!” promised Feather Flop.

FOOTNOTE:

[F] This list is taken from U. S. Farmers’ Bulletin No. 196, Usefulness of the American Toad.