The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-05
THE TOAD AND THE WORM.
A Quiet Trial of Skill IN Which The
Toad was Winner.
From the NelU York Sun.

Toad was Winner.
From the Nelo York Sun.
IAN angle worm is smooth one way and
rough another, like a beard of wheat, "
said the professor, land it's funny to see a
toad handle one. People generally don't
know how smart a toad is and maybe a
good many will be inclined to doubt this
little story about a toad and an angle worm,
but it is true. was digging up a tree one
day, few years ago, and two or three
friends of mine were watching the work.
Pretty soon big toad cana hopping
gravely out of the weeds near by, and
made his way toward the spot where l was
digging, knowing there would be achance
, TO get hold of a worm now and then.
asked my friends if they had ever seen the
toad eat, and as they hadn't told them to
watch that one, and I would show them
something funny. l threw him a worm
and the suddenness with which he snapped
it up and swallowed it, always heal or
smooth end first, and the ludicrous solennity
of him in doing it, cOnvulsed my friends
with laughter. By and by turned up the
biggest earth worm ever saw. 1t was one
of those black fellows with a pale ring
around their necks, that actually look as If
they had intelligence. This one was inches
long at least, and you could see the scales on
him. tossed this big worm to the toad. The
toad eyed it a moment with @ serious air, ex-
amined IL critically until it had assured itself
on the important point Of which was it
head and which its tail. and then with
flash and flap Of his funny tongue, sent
the worm head downward iuto bis stomach
But the worn was several inches longer
than the toad, and the latter nipped his jaws
together and held the worm, which writhed
and twisted itself about, winding several
coils around the toed's neck. The toad
waited patiently until the worm uncoiled
itself for another gyration and then gulped
a half an inch or SO more of it down his
throat. There were good many half inches
in the worm, and the process Of gulplng
it down was not only slow, but tire
some to the toad's Jaws, so much 50, in fact,
that the toad could no longer hold the worm
tightly in the grip OF its jaws, and it began
to work its way out OF the toad's mouth.
The toad would swallow little Of the worm
every now and then, but the wrigglIng
thing was getting more of itself outside of
the toad than the toad was getting down,
and 1t would have been only matter of a
few minutes before the worm would be all
the way out if it hadn't been for the toad's
superior wisdom.
Il had boosted of the toad being more
than a match for most any creeping, crawl
Ing or hopping thing, and now l began to
fear that this was about to belle my words
WIeu boW WIN ueltk LII bnhb nc Wda o1uhl
to the occasion. He cooked his head on one
side as the worm was wriggling and writh-
ing out OF his mouth, and seemed to be
thinking OF what was the best thing to do.
Then he suddenly brought his right foot up
against his stomach, clutched it and the
worm inside of it, and held the worm firmly
there, so that it couldn't wsrk its way out
any further. Then the toad made his gulps
at his leisure, absorbing a little more of the
worm each time, and each time taking up a
reef, 80 to speak. in his stomach with his
claw, until he had swallowed the entire
worm, when he looked around with posi-
tive smile on his face, winked solemLly two
or three times and hoped away among the
weeds