Mother West Wind's Children

rld was young and the frogs ruled the world. His hands were folded across his white and yellow waistcoa

t, foolish, green flies over to the big lily pad, and they were now safely inside the white and yellow waistcoat. A thousand little tadpoles, the great, great-grandchildren of Grandfather Frog, we

ming and dreaming of the days when all

umped from stone to stone. Billy Mink was feeling very good-very good indeed. He had caught a fine fat trout for breakfast. He had hidden two more away for dinner in a snu

as still as the rock he was standing on, and peeped through the bulrushes. Billy Mink is very cautio

a good time in the Smiling Pool. He saw the Merry Little Breezes kissing the buttercups and daisies on the bank, and he saw old Grandfather F

ng Pool. Now, Billy Mink can swim very fast, very fast indeed. For a little way

d little tadpoles saw him coming and fled in all directions to bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of the

n the world was young. When he was right under the big green lily pad he suddenly kicked up hard with his hind feet. Up went the b

mouth, unless it be his cousin, old Mr. Toad. And when Grandfather Frog went

llowed a great deal of water, and he choked and spluttered and swam around in foolish

rised he forgo

ection and looked this way and looked that way, but all he saw was the Smiling Pool dimpling and smiling, Mrs. Redwing bringing a fat worm

. "It is very strange. I must have

not dreaming. No, indeed! They were very much awake, and they saw all that was going on in the Smiling Pool. Great-Grandfather Frog was just pretending. You may fool him once, but Grandfather

t all meant. He thought it such a good joke that he couldn't keep it to himself, so when he saw Little Joe Otter coming to try his slippery slide he swam across to tell him all about it. Little Joe Otter

over behind the Big Rock. Pretty soon one of the Merry Little Breezes danced over to see if Grandfather Frog had really gone to sleep. Grandfather Frog didn't move, not the teeniest, weeniest bit, b

ds and laughed too. They left the buttercups and da

s danced over to the Big Rock, and then, suddenly, all together they gave the big stick a p

e bulrushes, so as not to be seen, crawled Billy Mink, back towards his home on the Laughing Brook. Billy Mink wasn't laughing now. Oh,

ides and opened his mouth very wide in a noiseless laugh

hands across his white and yellow waistcoat and began again to d