Chapter 4

Now, Long Bill Wren had suddenly made up his mind that he wouldn't take a mud bath, after all. He didn't like the prospect of having his skin pulled off. Suppose Mr. Frog should be mistaken about that second skin, which the tailor claimed lay underneath the old one?

Long Bill believed that with no skin at all he would find his rheumatism much worse than before. And he would certainly be a queer-looking object.

So as old Mr. Turtle crawled slowly towards him, he drew away.

"I'm going to wait----" Long Bill announced.

"Why?" Mr. Frog demanded.

"Going to wait till the weather is warmer," Long Bill faltered.

Of course Mr. Frog was disappointed by having his plans so upset.

And Mr. Turtle was disappointed too.

"My mouth is open," he told Mr. Frog. "I must grab something. And it might as well be you."

But Mr. Frog jumped nimbly out of Mr. Turtle's reach. And a moment later he thrust the free end of a tree-root between Mr. Turtle's jaws.

They closed with a snap. And Mr. Turtle began to pull.

"Come on!" Mr. Frog urged Long Bill Wren. "The tree may fall at any moment. It's safer elsewhere." And without waiting to see what happened, he leaped into Black Creek and swam away.

As for Long Bill Wren, he hurried home. He knew his wife would be wondering where he was, for he had been away from the house in the reeds much longer than his usual ten minutes.

Arriving there, he was not surprised that she asked him a few questions. And he explained to her that he had been on the bank of the creek, watching old Mr. Turtle pulling at the root of a willow.

"And I can tell you that I'm well pleased that it wasn't my tail Mr. Turtle had in his jaws," he said solemnly.

Mrs. Wren shuddered at the mere mention of such an unlucky accident. And then she said: "I hope that dangerous Mr. Frog was not with you."

"I believe he was there for a time," her husband replied. "But he left before I did."

"I wish you would keep away from him," she remarked.

"I'm going to," Long Bill Wren promised. "Although Mr. Frog is our newest neighbor, I shall have nothing more to do with him."

THE END

Little Jack Rabbit Books

(Trademark Registered)

By DAVID CORY

Author of "Little Journeys to Happyland"

=Colored Wrappers With Text Illustrations.=

A new and unique series about the furred and feathered little people of the wood and meadow.

Children will eagerly follow the doings of little Jack Rabbit, and the clever way in which he escapes from his three enemies, Danny Fox, Mr. Wicked Wolf and Hungry Hawk will delight the youngsters.

LITTLE JACK RABBIT'S ADVENTURES LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND DANNY FOX LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE SQUIRREL BROTHERS LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND CHIPPY CHIPMUNK LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE BIG BROWN BEAR LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND UNCLE JOHN HARE LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND PROFESSOR CROW LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND OLD MAN WEASEL LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND MR. WICKED WOLF LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND HUNGRY HAWK LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE POLICEMAN DOG LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND MISS MOUSIE LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND UNCLE LUCKY LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND THE YELLOW DOG TRAMP

GROSSET & DUNLAP, _Publishers_, NEW YORK

HAPPY HOME SERIES

By HOWARD R. GARIS

=Individual Colored Wrappers and Colored Illustrations by LANG CAMPBELL=

Mr. Garis has written many stories for boys and girls, among them his Uncle Wiggly volumes, but these books are something distinctly new, surprising and entertaining.

ADVENTURES OF THE GALLOPING GAS STOVE

A tale of how Gassy mysteriously disappeared, and how he came riding home on the back of an elephant. It is also related how he broke his leg, and fed a hungry family in a cottage near a lake.

ADVENTURES of the RUNAWAY ROCKING CHAIR

Racky creaked and groaned when fat Grandma sat on him too hard. He felt himself ill-treated, so he vanished. He did not intend to take Grandma's glasses with him, but he did. And he rocked a bunny to sleep.

ADVENTURES OF THE TRAVELING TABLE

Tippy, the table, always wanted to travel and see the world, but he did not know how to start. Until, all of a sudden, a diamond ring was hidden in his leg and a balloon carried him off through the air.

ADVENTURES OF THE SLIDING FOOT STOOL

Just because he did not want to be used as a milking stool by the Maiden All Forlorn, Skiddy slid away Christmas eve. With him went Jack the Jumper, and they had a wonderful time in the top shop.

ADVENTURES OF THE SAILING SOFA

Skippy always wanted to be a sailor. When the high water came in the spring, the sofa went sailing. He had a Rooster for a crew, while Tatter, the rag doll with one shoe button eye, was Captain.

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

Sleepy-Time Tales

(Trademark Registered)

_By_ ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY

These little books for little people tell of the adventures of the four-footed creatures of our American woods and fields in an amusing way that delights small two-footed human beings. At the same time, in the short-comings of Cuffy Bear and his neighbors, children are quick to recognize their own faults and to take home the obvious lessons.

_For complete list of the books in The Sleepy-Time Tales, see inside flap of this wrapper._

GROSSET & DUNLAP--NEW YORK

End of Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Ferdinand Frog, by Arthur Scott Bailey