Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1883-11-23

hibernated within the empty nose Of large
watering pot. When Spring arrived il was
much exercised In mind by cork which the
ingenuity of juvenile malice had thrust into
the entrance. When, later on, the obstacle
was removed, the golden moment had passed
and the toad was found to be too stout to get
out. When last seen as q 5-year.old, II seem
ed little cramped for room, but by no means
impatient.
Patience, indeed, would appear to be the
toad's only good quality, unless, indeed, want
of beauty, as in those novels OF "a good
moral tendency" can be magnifed into a
cardinal virtue. With philosophic equanim
ity the toad will creep head first into hole
and then, reversing its engines with great
difficulty and much asthmatic pulling, turn
round and gaze out upon the world with the
impcrturbablc visage OF Herodotus prince,
who would have been handed down to pos
terity as the wsest of men II he had not lain
on his back md gestcuated in an un-
secmly manner with his legs" The toad
never gesticulates with its legs, but coniin-
ues to peer solemny out Of the hole until the
gardener fills it up with spadeful Of earth.
The gardener says 1t is good for toads TO be
buried for fifty years. Nor il the ordinary
estimates Of batrachian longevity are 10 be
trusted, would the toad miss that halfcen-
tury Of retirement from business. Mr.. Ar
scctt, of Devonshire has recorded how, as q
boy, he became acquainted with a toad
which his father had for many years noticed
haunting the steps Of his fathers front
door. From the first this particular toad had
been remarkable for its patriarchal dimen-
sions and when, after thirty years, MIR.
Arscott undertook to tame the creature, it
responded to his approaches with all the
effusion of youthful confidence, and after
In ho,, tnI tla
generations, became at last welcome guest
at the supper table, and ate maggots.
But it is childish 70 calculate a toad's age
by human generations or by centuries A. ID.
Long before the days of Noah's great grand
fathers predecessors, toads, we are told,
used to scat themselves, for purposes known
only to themselves, in the plastic sediment of
the antedlNvian past. There, oblivious OF
the world, they remained, while the sediment
became sandstone, and geological periods
came and went, each dragging on its endless
ale of years. Through their stone walls
pcrchance the toads speculatcd upon the lap
ping and murmurpg sound of those waters
that drowned the earth and the cliaking of
mallet and chisel upon that useless tower of
DID, and listened with solemn wonder to the
strange outcry that followed the
confusion of the workmen's tongues.
Then n long silence, gilded with the
distant recollection of the flavor of the
plump paleozOis mosquitoes that used TO SC t.
Tic upon the sedimenary deposits into which
the toad was surely, but slowly sinking
Once more the silence is broken by the dis
tant sound of human tools and voices. Near.
or and nearer they approach until, at last, the
toads prison is burst open, and, with its blear
eyes dazzled by flood of Nineteenth Cen
tury daylight, the toad gazcs d-camily upon
the wondering face of Sias Browne, of Liver
pool, quarryman. Then he crawls forth
laborously and mails the housefly of civiiz-
alton with relish that would almost seem
to imply previous acquaintance with the
insect lie is agile, too considering his age |
They were once envaluable in many re
spccts. Fortune-tellcrs were helpless with
out fried toads. A witchs incarnation was
obviously incomplete unless paddock" (thc |
familiar name of the reptile) called An
ointment of toad's fat gave immense mus
cuar strength If applied to the body at the
moment of conjunction of certain favorable |
planets A cubic inch of dried toad worn
around the neck on string was On infallble
antidote against many diseases Of the body
and mind formed a love philtre irresistible
by the most obdurate swain, perhaps be-
cause the nature of the medicine was such
ms to compel him to throw up bis previous
engagements, The common or garden toad
Sc sorl6s ses Hy has sodge ICE admit with
trachian powders could only make modern
misogynist very i'll; and ordinary toads
shrivel up to such an extent that the happy
effects of a solid cubic inch of dried toad are
unattainable. Even the priceless jewel that
each toad used to Gerry in his head. in order.
out of pure toadish spite, TO prevent human
beings from finding him, is not easily dis
covered nowadays. Nature is more nlg
gardly Of diamonds than she used to be, and
the supply of precious stones for the toads' |
heads has therefore run short In Sir
Thomas Brownies days they were abundant
enough, being ''often to be met with In
toads, at least by the induration OF their
cranies," and, though fewer in num-
ber than the "toadstones" found in the
earth, were valuable enough, 'and in SUBJ
stance not unlike the stones in crabs heads
As far as at this distance of time we can
recolect, the results of childhood's scientific |
investigations for the pearl of great price
in toads "crany" produced decided opin
ion that toad's head was partly full of
water and partly empty. Doubtless the vine
gar aspect OF that toad-for his malcvolent
expression haunts us still-dissolvcd his
pearl. Or it may be that the race has suf-
fercd from hereditary water on the brain to
such an extent that rot only is there
no. stone in the cerebelum, but not
even any erebelum-nothlng but water.
Ono inQuiring naturalist has stated that this
water has an acid taste. 1t is to hoped that
he became aware of that valuable fact by nc.
cidcnt.