her Frog swallowed the
quick retort on the tip of his tongue, thanked Striped Chipmunk, and
hurried away to look for the spring, for he was very, very thirsty.
Besides, he was very, very hot, and he hurried still faster as he
thought of the cool bath he would have when he found that spring.

XIX

GRANDFATHER FROG JUMPS INTO MORE TROUBLE

Some people are heedless and run into trouble. Some people are stupid
and walk into trouble. Grandfather Frog was both heedless and stupid and
jumped into trouble. When Striped Chipmunk told him where the spring
was, it seemed to him that he couldn't wait to reach it. You see,
Grandfather Frog had spent all his life in the Smiling Pool, where he
could get a drink whenever he wanted it by just reaching over the edge
of his big green lily-pad. Whenever he was too warm, all he had to do
was to say "Chugarum!" and dive head first into the cool water. So he
wasn't used to going a long time without water.

Jump, jump, jump! Grandfather Frog was going as fast as ever he could
in the direction Striped Chipmunk had pointed out. Every three or four
jumps he would stop for just a wee, wee bit of rest, then off he would
go again, jump, jump, jump! And each jump was a long one. Peter Rabbit
certainly would have been envious if he could have seen those long jumps
of Grandfather Frog.

At last the ground began to grow damp. The farther he went, the damper
it grew. Presently it became fairly wet, and there was a great deal of
soft, cool, wet moss. How good it did feel to Grandfather Frog's poor
tired feet!

"Must be I'm most there," said Grandfather Frog to himself, as he
scrambled up on a big mossy hummock, so as to look around. Right away he
saw a little path from the direction of the Long Lane. It led straight
past the very hummock on which Grandfather Frog was sitting, and he
noticed that where the ground was very soft and wet, old boards had been
laid down. That puzzled Grandfather Frog a great deal.

"It's a sure enough path," said he. "But what under the blue, blue sky
does any one want to spoil it for by putting those boards there?"

You see, Grandfather Frog likes the soft wet mud, and he couldn't
understand how any one, even Farmer Brown's boy, could prefer a hard dry
path. Of course he never had worn shoes himself, so he couldn't
understand why any one should want dry feet when they could just as well
have wet ones. He was still puzzling over it when he heard a sound that
m