n the lurch.
But hear the end of the story. All of a sudden our four tall, strong,
sturdy friends see something jumping on the ground. It jumps because
it is a frog, and it wants to reach the meadow along the roadside. The
meadow is froggy's home, and he loves it; he has his residence there
beside a brook. He jumps, and jumps.

He is a green frog, and he looks like a leaf that is alive. Now the lads
are in the meadow; very soon they feel their feet sinking in the soft
ground where the rank grass grows. A few steps more, and they are up to
their knees in mud. The grass hid a swamp underneath.

They just manage to struggle out. Shoes, socks, calves are all as black
as ink. The fairy of the green field has put gaiters of mire on the four
bad boys.

Etienne comes up panting for breath. He hardly knows, when he sees them
in this pickle, if he should be glad or sorry. His simple little heart
is filled with a sense of the catastrophes that befall the great and
strong. As for the four muddy urchins, they turn back piteously the way
they came, for how can they, I should like to know, how can they go and
see their friend Jean with their shoes and stockings in this state? When
they get home again, their mothers will know how naughty they have been
by the evidence of their legs, while little Etienne's innocence will be
legible on his sturdy little stumps.

A CHILD'S DINNER PARTY

[Illustration: 228]

WHAT fun it is playing at dinner parties! You can have a very plain
dinner or a very elaborate one, just as you like. You can manage it with
nothing at all. Only you have to pretend a great deal then.

Therese and her little sister Pauline have asked Pierre and Marthe to
a dinner in the country. Proper invitations have been issued, and they
have been talking about it for days. Mamma has given her two little
girls good advice--and good things to eat, too. There will be nougat
and sweet cakes, and a chocolate cream. The table will be laid in the
arbour.

"If only it will be fine!" cries Therese, who is nine now. At her age
one knows the fondest hopes are often disappointed in this world and you
cannot always do what you propose. But little Pauline has none of these
worries. She cannot think it will be wet. It will be fine, because she
wants it to.

And lo! the great day has broken clear and sunny. Not a cloud in the
sky. The two guests have come. How fortunate! For this was another
subject of anxiety for Therese. Marthe