CHAPTER VI THE FROG WHO WAS A TOAD

 When I thought about it afterwards it seemed strange that I should not be allowed to dig holes when digging holes was what I was for. But every time I did it some one, William or the Master or the Mistress, came up and said “No, no, Fritz! Naughty dog! Mustn’t dig up the ground.” It was most discouraging. (Discouraging is a long word, and if you don’t know what it means I shan’t tell you. Any one as old as you are ought to know.) Freya never got in trouble that way. She didn’t seem to care much for doing the things I did, like digging for badgers¹ in the orchard² or for foxes on the front lawn. (I know now that I should not have expected to find a fox under the lawn, but then one place seemed as good as another.) Freya liked to stay around the back door and look hungry and coax³ Delia or Cook to give her things to eat. When she wasn’t doing that she was most always asleep somewhere. She got very fat and lazy and it was all I could do to get her to go hunting with me. She wasn’t much good at hunting, anyway. She always got tired just when the fun began.

 

We used to go down to the pond and the brook⁴ and hunt frogs. Frogs aren’t good to eat, but it is a lot of fun chasing them. You creep up on them very quietly along the edge of the pond and try to get them before they can jump back into the water. Most always you miss them, because their eyes are in the wrong place, being on the top of their head, and they can see behind them. But sometimes you catch one. When you do you play with it awhile and let it go. Freya, though, never would play with them. She said they were ugly-looking and she didn’t like the smell of them. Girl-dogs are like that, though, sort of finicky and fussy⁵ about little things.

 

You wouldn’t think that such a silly, no-account animal as a frog could get a decent dog into trouble, would you? It can, though, and it did. And I was the dog. I’ll tell you about it because it may be a warning to you some time when you are hunting frogs.

 

One afternoon when it was very hot weather and we had all kept very quiet in the shade most of the day I got tired of keeping still and told Freya to get up and we’d hunt frogs. She didn’t want to at all, being, as I’ve said, fat and lazy, but I nipped her ear and made her. So we trotted⁶ down the road and across the meadow, and when we were still a long way from the pond I saw a frog. I told Freya to be quiet and then I stole ahead very softly and there he was in the grass just sitting and looking at me out of two big goggly eyes. He was quite different from any frog I’d ever seen before, being fatter and uglier and having more warts⁷.

 

Freya whispered, “Oh, isn’t he horrid⁸? Don’t touch him, Fritz!” But I wasn’t going to let any frog make faces at me and so I jumped for him and caught him. He tried to get away but I took him in my mouth and shook him just in play, of course, and then—Oh dear, the most awful thing happened! The inside of my mouth got on fire and I dropped that frog and ran as hard as ever I could run to the pond and stuck my head right into the water!

 

But water didn’t do much good. My mouth and my tongue were hot and stingy and smarty and felt just as though they were burning up. I drank water and shook my head and pawed my mouth and howled just as loud as I could. Freya ran around and asked what the matter was and got awfully⁹ excited. I was too busy trying to stop the pain to tell her what was wrong. Besides, when I wasn’t gulping¹⁰ water or pawing at my mouth I was howling! Father and Mother heard me and came running down to the pond. But I couldn’t tell them what the matter was and so Freya showed them the frog. I was still sitting up to my neck in the pond and howling frightfully when they came back.

 

“Stop making that noise,” said Father, “and keep your mouth in the water.”

 

So I did it and whimpered instead of howled and my mouth began to feel better. But my tongue was swollen¹¹ all up and when I tried to talk I just made funny noises. After a while I crawled out of the pond and shook myself, feeling sort of ashamed because I had made such a fuss. But Mother licked my face, and Freya, who had been lying nearby whining¹², came running up and leaped about and barked. Even Father seemed sorry for me.Then he took us back to the frog, which was still sitting where I had left him, and said:

 

“Have a good look at him, children.”

 

So we looked at the frog and the frog blinked at us and seemed to be laughing. I growled¹³ and backed away from him.

 

“The next time you take a frog in your mouth,” said Father, “be sure it is a frog and not a toad¹⁴. Toads¹⁵ are very unhealthy for dogs and that thing there is a toad. When you took him up he put poison in your mouth. It was a good thing you were near the pond, for water is the only thing I know of that will help. I heard of a dog once who was poisoned by a frog and there was no water around and so he ran for home. The poison made froth in his mouth and Two-Legged Folks thought he was mad and a policeman tried to shoot him. Luckily for him the policeman aimed wrong and the dog got away. Now do you think you will know a toad the next time you see one?”

 

I said I was sure of it and then we went home and I crawled behind the flower-pots and stayed there a long time. I didn’t want any supper that day. You wouldn’t have wanted any, either, if your mouth had felt the way mine did. I think it is quite wrong to have things look so much alike as frogs and toads do; and flies and bees, too. How is a puppy to know?

 

When it was almost dark I crept out from behind the flower-pots and went to get a drink of water. Ju-Ju was outside, playing with a beetle¹⁶, and when she saw me she grinned. She must have found out somehow about that toad. I hate cats.

1 badgers   

n.獾( badger的名词复数 )；獾皮；（大写）獾州人（美国威斯康星州人的别称）；毛鼻袋熊

参考例句：

• Badgers had undermined the foundations of the church. 獾在这座教堂的地基处打了洞。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• And rams ' skins dyed red, and badgers' skins, and shittim wood. 5染红的公羊皮，海狗皮，皂荚木。 来自互联网

2 orchard   

n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场

参考例句：

• My orchard is bearing well this year.今年我的果园果实累累。
• Each bamboo house was surrounded by a thriving orchard.每座竹楼周围都是茂密的果园。

3 coax   

v.哄诱，劝诱，用诱哄得到，诱取

参考例句：

• I had to coax the information out of him.我得用好话套出他掌握的情况。
• He tried to coax the secret from me.他试图哄骗我说出秘方。

4 brook   

n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让

参考例句：

• In our room we could hear the murmur of a distant brook.在我们房间能听到远处小溪汩汩的流水声。
• The brook trickled through the valley.小溪涓涓流过峡谷。

5 fussy   

adj.为琐事担忧的，过分装饰的，爱挑剔的

参考例句：

• He is fussy about the way his food's cooked.他过分计较食物的烹调。
• The little girl dislikes her fussy parents.小女孩讨厌她那过分操心的父母。

6 trotted   

小跑，急走( trot的过去分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走

参考例句：

• She trotted her pony around the field. 她骑着小马绕场慢跑。
• Anne trotted obediently beside her mother. 安妮听话地跟在妈妈身边走。

7 warts   

n.疣( wart的名词复数 )；肉赘；树瘤；缺点

参考例句：

• You agreed to marry me, warts and all! 是你同意和我结婚的，我又没掩饰缺陷。 来自辞典例句
• Talk about trying to cure warts with spunk-water such a blame fool way as that! 用那样糊涂蛋的方法还谈什么仙水治疣子！ 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

8 horrid   

adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的

参考例句：

• I'm not going to the horrid dinner party.我不打算去参加这次讨厌的宴会。
• The medicine is horrid and she couldn't get it down.这种药很难吃，她咽不下去。

9 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。

10 gulping   

v.狼吞虎咽地吃，吞咽( gulp的现在分词 )；大口地吸（气）；哽住

参考例句：

• She crawled onto the river bank and lay there gulping in air. 她爬上河岸，躺在那里喘着粗气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• And you'll even feel excited gulping down a glass. 你甚至可以感觉到激动下一杯。 来自互联网

11 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

12 whining   

n. 抱怨，牢骚 v. 哭诉，发牢骚

参考例句：

• That's the way with you whining, puny, pitiful players. 你们这种又爱哭、又软弱、又可怜的赌棍就是这样。
• The dog sat outside the door whining (to be let in). 那条狗坐在门外狺狺叫着（要进来）。

13 growled   

v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说

参考例句：

• \"They ought to be birched, \" growled the old man. 老人咆哮道：“他们应受到鞭打。” 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He growled out an answer. 他低声威胁着回答。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 toad   

n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆

参考例句：

• Both the toad and frog are amphibian.蟾蜍和青蛙都是两栖动物。
• Many kinds of toad hibernate in winter.许多种蟾蜍在冬天都会冬眠。

15 toads   

n.蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆( toad的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• All toads blink when they swallow. 所有的癞蛤蟆吞食东西时都会眨眼皮。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Toads have shorter legs and are generally more clumsy than frogs. 蟾蜍比青蛙脚短，一般说来没有青蛙灵活。 来自辞典例句

16 beetle   

n.甲虫，近视眼的人

参考例句：

• A firefly is a type of beetle.萤火虫是一种甲虫。
• He saw a shiny green beetle on a leaf.我看见树叶上有一只闪闪发光的绿色甲虫。