The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-02
THE STORY OF A TOAD.

SAAA VT n A@&ANs
 
 Not far from my house there is a swamny pond, where for a hundred years, it is said, toads have repaired in spring to mate and lay their eggs, lies in a hollow at the bottom of a piece of pasture land; around the margtng grow coarse grass sedges, and margin grow coarse grass sedges, and silmy mud, such as weIl-regulated toads have strong liking for in the breeding season. On a bright May morning about eight years ago, many toads came hopping across the dusty country-roads struggling through the weeds beneath the rail fences, and then, by heavy jumps, made their way across the fields to Pollywog Pool, which was the name of the puddle spoken of above. When they arrived, they found scores of other toads already assembled and listening to the shrill, trilling .love-songs of the males, who sat about in the pool, with the lower half of the body submerged, and with their threats distended as though each of them had partly swallowed a large marble. Some of the females had already laid their eggs. which were to be seen by thous- ands upon the muddy bottom of the pond. They appeared as little black speeks set at short more or less regular intervals in long strings of transparent jelly which lay in masses upon the mud or were twined about the grass and sticks near the bank of the masses were many times larger than the bodies of the toads which laid them, owing to the fact that the strings of jelly had swelled immediately on contact with the water. The number of eggs deposited by each female was enormous in some cases as many as ten or twelve thousand. Shortly after wards all the toads left the pond. In about two weeks the eggs began to hatch, and out came thousands of iit- tie black tadpoles, which made their first meal off the jelly in which they had lately been enevloped. When this had been eaten, they fed on the slime on the bottom of the pond, and it must have been very nutritious, as the tad poles grew rapidly They were getting along very nicely, when one day, early in June, a flock of ducks found their way to the pond, and when they went away, many hundreds of the infant toads went with them. Birds, also, picked up a great many so that toward the end of the month, there were not so many tadpoles by some thousands as there had been at the be- ginning. Those which remained, how ever, were undergoing many changes. Hind legs had appeared on most of them and few had fore legs as we'll.
 Then the tails which had been of such service before the coming of their legs began to grow smaller and smaller, until they were entirely absorbed by the body, and the little creatures were no longer tadpoles but toads, and as such, ready to leave the puddle and take up their life upon dry land
 The sun was warm, and as the young toads were very sensitive to the heat, they lost little time in hiding them selves under leaves, stones and in oth- CT shady places. It was lucky for them that they did this, too; otherwise they would surely have been devoured by the birds, many of which regard infant toads as a very desirable addition to the midsummer bill of fare. As 1t was, the blue jays and crows picked up a good many of them, and number more were swallowed alive by snakes within the next day or two. The survivors, still some thousands of them, were all lying safely hidden in the shade, when one hot day toward the end of July ther came e sudden heavy shower of rain. Then out popped every living toadlet for the sake of the moisture un- til the roads and gardens were alive with little brown jumpers. And then the people came out of the houses and watched them, and one and all de- clared that they must have come down in the rain storm, else, where could they have appearedSfrom so suddenly? And many of the older members of the community remembered having seen, long years ago, showers of toads rain down from the sky in just that way; at least they believed they remembered 1t, and this was just as good to them, and as the toads said nothing, the story was just as good to them, and as the toads said nothing, the story was hand ed down without dispute.
 In spite of the fact that the sensi- tive little toads hid themselves very carefully during the warm days, be- fore the cold weather of autumn ap- peared, by far the greater number of them were devoured by snakes, hawks and other birds, and by various four footed creatures which are abroad chiefly at. night. But few sur, wed, and these all found retreats undet stone heaps, beneath the roots of old trees, in oodcrucks-burrows or under the soil. One of them crept into a hnla l1rldnI, 11nu harm and h.,,r 1s.......