THE WONDERFUL NEST

Just as the sinking sun began to drop his dark curtain over the Frog Pond, and the beautiful moon lifted her fair face in the east, a strange frog came out of the woods and hopped toward the pond.

"Ker-r-rump," called an old bullfrog very loudly. On hearing this, frogs could be seen coming from almost every direction. Soon there was a great crowd around the stranger. They began all at one time asking her questions. Grandfather Frog told them to be quiet and give her a chance to speak for herself.

"I have come a long way," said the stranger. "My home is in the far-off land of Brazil. I was happy there and wished for no better place to live. One day a man came along, and then all my life was changed. He caught my mate and me in a net and brought us away to this big country. Here he put us in a tiny lake that was in a small park. We lived there only a short time when one evening, as I was busy building a nest, an owl swooped down from the sky. Before I knew he was near he had seized me with his big feet and swiftly carried me away. 'Oh, dear,' I thought, 'this will surely be the last of me, for he is taking me to his nest as food for his babies.'

"The owl flew a long distance. But as we were passing over a farmhouse a man came to the door and shot him. He flew on a little way before he fell, keeping fast hold of me until we reached the ground.

"I was not badly hurt, but I was very much frightened. When I heard the children coming to get the dead owl, I hid under the edge of a big stone and I stayed there for a couple of days. Then I decided that I would see if I could get back to the pond where I had left my mate. As I was slowly hopping along, a Lark lit near me and asked where I was going. I soon told him how the owl had snapped me up and carried me away, and how anxious I was to get back home. 'Why not go to the Frog Pond?' he asked. 'There are no owls there.' He told me all about this place, but I said, 'I must first go for my mate.'

"'Oh, go right on to the Frog Pond,' said the Lark. 'I will look your husband up and tell him where to find you. He can come by himself as well as not.' This seemed after all the best plan, so here I am."

Grandfather Bull Frog told her he was very glad she had come directly to the pond. He asked her where she would like to live. A tree would suit her best, she said, as she had spent most of her time in Brazil in a tree.

"Before I choose my tree," she told them, "I had better make my nest, as it is getting so late in the season. It is time my polly-wogs were hatching."

"Do you make your own nest?" Mrs. Toad asked her.

"Of course I do," she said. "I thought all frogs did that. Our family always do."

"Where will you make it?" Grandmother Bull Frog asked her.

"If you don't mind," she answered, "I should like this shallow place in the edge of the pond."

As no one objected, she jumped into the water and disappeared. In a short time the frogs crowded on the shore saw her two hands come up filled with mud. She chose a spot where she carefully placed the mud, then disappeared again. Soon she came up with more mud and placed it near the first bit. Many times the little hands disappeared and came up loaded with mud, which was carefully placed with the other.

By and by the frogs saw that the nest began to look round like a circle. Then pretty soon the mud wall became so high the builder had to bring her head and shoulders out of the water in order to put the mud in the right place.

Not a frog croaked. They were all too much taken up with what she was doing to spend time in that way.

After she had worked for some time she stopped and, looking around, said, "It's pretty hard work lifting and shaping so much mud!"

"Don't you think you should have waited until your mate was here?" asked Grandmother. "He could have helped you."

"I should say not!" said the stranger. "You don't know him. He is the laziest frog you ever saw. He never helps me build my nest. He just doesn't enjoy working. I always have to make the nest myself. Of course he is a dear fellow and I'm fond of him," she said hastily, "but he just won't work."

Then she went on with her nest, lifting handful after handful of mud from the bottom of the lake and piling it up on the round wall. When the wall was about four inches high and twelve inches across, she smoothed the inside with her hands, and then rubbed the bottom of the nest and the lower part of the wall with the underside of her body and feet. She paid no attention to the outside of the wall. That was left rough and uneven.

When she had finished her nest it looked like a mud bowl half full of water sitting in the pool. "Here," she said, as she climbed on the bank, "is where I shall place my eggs. I can then keep an eye on the polly-wogs and see that nothing harms them. They cannot get out of the nest."

Of course all the frogs had to see that nest. And every one of them said that it was most wonderfully made.

"You see," she said, as she showed them her hands, "all my fingers are largest on the ends. That is why I can handle the mud so well. Now I must have something to eat," she said as she began to look around for insects. "It gives one an appetite to work so hard."

As the frogs hopped away everyone was saying, "That is truly a wonderful nest!" Many of the mother frogs sighed and wished for one as good.