d.

XX

OLD MR. TOAD IS PUFFED UP

Old Mr. Toad hopped slowly down the Lone Little Path. He usually does hop
slowly, but this time he hopped slower than ever. You see, he was so puffed
up that he couldn't have hopped fast if he had wanted to, and he didn't
want to. In the first place his stomach was so full of ants that there
wasn't room for another one. No, Sir, Old Mr. Toad couldn't have swallowed
another ant if he had tried. Of course they made his stomach stick out, but
it wasn't the ants that puffed him out all over. Oh, my, no! It was pride.
That's what it was--pride. You know nothing can puff any one up quite like
foolish pride.

Old Mr. Toad was old enough to have known better. It is bad enough to see
young and foolish creatures puffed up with pride, but it is worse to see
any one as old as Old Mr. Toad that way. He held his head so high that he
couldn't see his own feet, and more than once he stubbed his toes.
Presently he met his old friend, Danny Meadow Mouse. He tipped his head a
little higher, puffed himself out a little more, and pretended not to see
Danny.

"Hello, Mr. Toad," said Danny.

Mr. Toad pretended not to hear. Danny looked puzzled. Then he spoke again,
and this time he shouted: "Hello, Mr. Toad! I haven't seen you for some
time."

It wouldn't do to pretend not to hear this time. "Oh, how do you do,
Danny?" said Old Mr. Toad with a very grand air, and pretending to be much
surprised. "Sorry I can't stop, but I've been dining with, my friend,
Buster Bear, and now I must get home." When he mentioned the name of Buster
Bear, he puffed himself out a little more.

Danny grinned as he watched him hop on down the Lone Little Path. "Can't
talk with common folks any more," he muttered. "I've heard that pride is
very apt to turn people's heads, but I never expected to see Old Mr. Toad
proud."

[Illustration: "Can't talk with common folks any more," he muttered.]

Mr. Toad kept on his way, and presently he met Peter Rabbit. Peter stopped
to gossip, as is his way. But Old Mr. Toad took no notice of him at all. He
kept right on with his head high, and all puffed out. Peter might have been
a stick or a stone for all the notice Old Mr. Toad took of him. Peter
looked puzzled. Then he hurried down to tell Danny Meadow Mouse about it.

"Oh," said Danny, "he's been to dine with Buster Bear, and now he has no
use for his old friends."

Pretty soon along came Johnny Chuck, and he was very much