ttle cousins, for they were all
pollywogs to begin with. Peter Rabbit came over every day to watch them.
Always he had thought pollywogs just homely, wriggling things, not the
least bit interesting, but since he had discovered how proud of them were
Grandfather Frog and Old Mr. Toad, he had begun to wonder about them and
then to watch them.

"There's one thing about them, and that is they are not in danger the way
any babies are," said Peter, talking to himself as is his way when there is
no one else to talk to. Just then a funny little black pollywog wriggled
into sight, and while Peter was watching him, a stout-jawed water-beetle
suddenly rushed from among the water grass, seized the pollywog by his
tail, and dragged him down. Peter stared. Could it be that that
ugly-looking bug was as dangerous an enemy to the baby Toad as Reddy Fox is
to a baby Rabbit? He began to suspect so, and a little later he knew so,
for there was that same little pollywog trying hard to swim and making bad
work of it, because he had lost half of his long tail.

That set Peter to watching sharper than ever, and presently he discovered
that pollywogs have to keep their eyes open quite as much as do baby
Rabbits, if they would live to grow up. There were several kinds of queer,
ugly-looking bugs forever darting out at the wriggling pollywogs.
Hungry-looking fish lay in wait for them, and Longlegs the Blue Heron
seemed to have a special liking for them. But the pollywogs were spry, and
seemed to have learned to watch out. They seemed to Peter to spend all
their time swimming and eating and growing. They grew so fast that it
seemed to him that he could almost _see_ them grow. And just imagine how
surprised Peter was to discover one day that that very pollywog which he
had seen lose his tail had grown a _new_ one. That puzzled Peter more than
anything he had seen in a long time.

"Why, I couldn't do that!" he exclaimed right out loud.

"Do what?" demanded Jerry Muskrat, who happened along just then.

"Why, grow a new tail like that pollywog," replied Peter, and told Jerry
all that he had seen. Jerry laughed.

"You'll see queerer things than that if you watch those pollywogs long
enough," said he. "They are a queer lot of babies, and very interesting to
watch if you've got the time for it. I haven't. This Smiling Pool is a
great kindergarten, and there's something happening here every minute.
There's no place like it."

"Are those great big f