XIV
HOW OLD MR. TREE TOAD FOUND OUT HOW TO CLIMB
Of all the puzzling things over which Peter Rabbit had sat and thoughtand wondered until the brains in that funny little head of his weretopsy-turvy, none was more puzzling than the fact that Sticky-toes theTree Toad could climb. Often Peter had watched him climb up the trunk ofa tree or jump from one branch to another and then thought of Old Mr.Toad, own cousin to Sticky-toes, and of Grandfather Frog, another owncousin, who couldn't climb at all, and wondered how it had all comeabout that one cousin could climb and be just as much at home in thetrees as the birds, while the others couldn't climb at all.
He had it on his mind one morning when he met Old Mr. Toad solemnlyhopping down the Lone Little Path. Right then and there Peter resolvedto ask Old Mr. Toad. "Good morning, Mr. Toad," said Peter politely."Have you a few minutes to spare?"
Old Mr. Toad hopped into the shade of a big mullein leaf. "I guess so,if it is anything important," said he. "Phew! Hot, isn't it? I simplycan't stand the sun. Now what is that you've got on your mind, Peter?"
Peter hesitated a minute, for he wasn't at all sure that Old Mr. Toadwould think the matter sufficiently important for him to spend his timein story telling. Then he blurted out the whole matter and how he hadpuzzled and puzzled why Sticky-toes was able to climb when none of therest of the Toad family could. Old Mr. Toad chuckled.
"Looking for a story as usual, I see," said he. "You ought to go toGrandfather Frog for this one, because Sticky-toes is really a Frog andnot a Toad. But we are all cousins, and I don't mind telling you aboutSticky-toes, or rather about his great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather,who was the first of the family ever to climb a tree. You see, it is allin the family, and I am very proud of my family, which is one of thevery oldest."
Peter settled himself comfortably and prepared to listen. Old Mr. Toadsnapped up a foolish spider who came too near and then cleared histhroat.
"Once on a time," he began, "when Old Mother Nature made the first landand the first trees and plants, the Toads and the Frogs were the firstto leave the water to see what dry land was like. The Toads, beingbolder than the Frogs, went all over the new land while the Frogs keptwithin jumping distance of the water, just as Grandfather Frog does tothis day. There was one Frog, however, who, seeing how bravely andboldly the Toads went forth to see all that was to be seen in the newland, made up his mind that he too would see the Great World. He was thesmallest of the Frogs, and his friends and relatives warned him not togo, saying that he would come to no good end.
"But he wouldn't listen to their dismal croakings and hurried after theToads. Being able to make longer jumps than they could, he soon caughtup with them, and they all journeyed on together. The Toads were sopleased that one of their cousins was brave enough to join them thatthey made him very welcome and treated him as one of themselves, so thatthey soon got to thinking of him as a Toad and not as a Frog at all.
"Now the Toads soon found that Old Mother Nature was having a hard timeto make plants grow, because as fast as they came up, they were eaten byinsects. You see, she had so many things to attend to in those days whenthe world was young that she had to leave a great many things to takecare of themselves and get along the best they could, and it was thisway with the plants. It was then that the great idea came to mygreat-great-ever-so-great-grandfather, and he called all the Toadstogether and proposed that they help Old Mother Nature by catching thebugs and worms that were destroying the plants.
"Little Mr. Frog, who had been adopted by the Toads, was one of the mosteager to help, and he was busy every minute. After a while the Toads hadcaught most of the bugs and worms on the ground and within reach, andthe plants began to grow. But when the plants got above the reach of theToads, the bugs and the worms were safe once more and began to multiplyso that the plants suffered and stopped growing. You see, there were nobirds in those days to help. One day little Mr. Frog sat under a bush onwhich most of the leaves had been eaten. He saw a worm eating a leaf onone of the lower branches. It was quite a way above his head. It worriedhim. He kept his eyes on that worm and thought and thought until hishead ached. At last he got an idea. 'I wonder,' thought he, 'if I jumpas hard as I can, if I can catch that fellow. I'll try it. It will dono harm to try.'
"So he drew his long legs close under him, and then he jumped up withall his might. He didn't quite reach the bug, but he got his hands onthe branch and by pulling and struggling, he managed to get up on it. Itwas a very uncertain seat, but he hung on and crept along until he coulddart his tongue out and catch that worm. Then he saw another, and intrying to catch that one he lost his balance and fell to the ground witha thump. It quite knocked the wind from his body.
"That night little Mr. Frog studied and studied, trying to think of someway by which he could get up in the bushes and trees and clear them ofbugs and worms. 'If only I could hold on once I get up there, I would beall right,' thought he. 'Then I could leave the bugs and worms on theground for my cousins the Toads to look after, while I look after thosebeyond their reach.'
"The next day and the next, and for many days thereafter, little Mr.Frog kept jumping for bugs on the bushes. He got many thumps and bumps,but he didn't mind these, for little by little he was learning how tohang on to the branches once he got up in them. Then one day, just byaccident, he put one hand against the trunk of a young pine-tree, andwhen he started to take it away, he found it stuck fast. He had to pullto get it free. Like a flash an idea popped into his head. He rubbed alittle of the pitch, for that was what had made his hand stick, on bothhands, and then he started to climb a tree. As long as the pitch lasted,he could climb.
"Little Mr. Frog was tickled to death, with his discovery, but he didn'tsay a word to any one about it. Every day he rubbed pitch on his handsand then climbed about in the bushes and low trees, ridding them of bugsand worms. Of course, it wasn't very pleasant to have that pitch on hishands, because dirt and all sorts of things which he happened to touchstuck to them, but he made the best of a bad matter and washed themcarefully when he was through with his day's work.
"Quite unexpectedly Old Mother Nature returned to see how the trees andthe plants were getting on. You see, she was worried about them. Whenshe found what the Toads had been doing, she was mightily pleased. Thenshe noticed that some of the bushes and low trees had very few leavesleft, while others looked thrifty and strong.
"'That's queer,' said Old Mother Nature to herself and went over toexamine a bush. Hanging on to a branch for dear life she saw a queerlittle fellow who was so busy that he didn't see her at all. It waslittle Mr. Frog. He was catching bugs as fast as he could. Old MotherNature wrinkled up her brows. 'Now however did he learn to climb?'thought she. Then she hid where she could watch. By and by she sawlittle Mr. Frog tumble out of the bush, because, you know, the pitch onhis hands had worn off. He hurried over to a pine-tree and rubbed morepitch on and then jumped up into the bush and went to work again.
"You can guess how astonished Old Mother Nature was when she saw thisperformance. And she was pleased. Oh, yes, indeed, Old Mother Naturewas wonderfully pleased. She was pleased because little Mr. Frog wastrying so hard to help her, and she was pleased because he had been sosmart in finding a way to climb. When she had laughed until she couldlaugh no more at the way little Mr. Frog had managed to stick to hiswork, she took him down very gently and wiped the pitch from his hands.Then she gently pinched the end of each finger and each toe so that theyended in little round discs instead of being pointed as before, and ineach little disc was a clean, sticky substance. Then she tossed him upin a tree, and when he touched a branch, he found that he could hold onwithout the least danger of falling.
"'I appoint you caretaker of my trees,' said Old Mother Nature, and fromthat day on little Mr. Frog lived in the trees, as did his children andhis children's children, even as Sticky-toes does to-day. And though hewas really a Frog, he was called the Tree Toad, and the Toads havealways been
proud to have him so called. And this is the end of thestory," concluded Old Mr. Toad.
XV
HOW OLD MR. HERON LEARNED PATIENCE