mr. frog reached home just as the sun peeped over the hills. he slipped hastily out of the water, sprang up the bank of the creek, and in three jumps landed on the roof of his tailor's shop. there he squatted, while his queer, bulging eyes scanned the sky in every direction. he was watching for mr. crow, and all but bursting with the news that he had for the old gentleman.
mr. frog had not sat there long before he heard a hoarse caw, caw! in the distance.
"there he is!" cried the tailor aloud. "there's the old boy! he'll be in sight in a moment."
and sure enough! soon mr. crow flapped out of the woods and came sailing over the meadows.
thereupon mr. frog set up a great croaking. and to his delight his elderly friend heard him calling and dropped down at once.
"i've some news for you," mr. frog announced, as soon as the old black scamp alighted near him.
"it'll have to keep," mr. crow replied. "i'm on my way to the cornfield. i haven't had my breakfast yet. and a person of my age has to eat his meals regularly."
the sprightly tailor looked slightly disappointed.
"i don't know whether the news will keep or not," he replied slyly. "it's very important. and i may have to tell it to someone else first if you don't care to hear it now."
"what's your news about?" mr. crow asked him gruffly. "i suppose you've made another suit for somebody. and you remember i told you i couldn't put that news in my newspaper any more unless you paid me something. it's advertising. and nobody gets free advertising."
"this news is something entirely different from anything you've ever heard," mr. frog insisted. "it's about kiddie katydid. he's a——"
"wait till i come back from the cornfield!" mr. crow pleaded.
"i can't! i simply must tell it now!" mr. frog cried.
"very well! but please talk fast; for i'm terribly hungry."
"kiddie katydid is a fiddler," mr. frog announced. "he fiddles every night. and that's the way he makes that ditty of his—katy did, katy——"
"don't!" mr. crow begged. "please don't! it's bad enough to have to hear that silly chorus every time i happen to wake up during the night—bad enough, i say, without being obliged to listen to it in broad daylight."
"very well!" the tailor yielded. "but he fiddles it, all the same. and when you tell my tale to brownie beaver i guess he'll be surprised."
"i shan't tell him," mr. crow declared, thereby astonishing mr. frog.
"why not?" the tailor demanded.
"we've had a slight disagreement," said mr. crow with a hoarse laugh. "i'm not his newspaper any longer."
"well, there's nothing to prevent your telling this story to other people, is there? and you certainly will be willing to mention me at the same time, won't you?" mr. frog inquired with an anxious pucker between his strange eyes.
"where do you come in, pray tell?" mr. crow inquired coldly.
"why, i discovered the secret!"
"perhaps you did—and perhaps you didn't," mr. crow observed. being very, very old, he was very, very wise. and he had long since learned that mr. frog was a somewhat slippery person. "if i spread any such news as this about pleasant valley i shall do it in my own way," he remarked. and thereupon the old gentleman rose quickly and disappeared in the direction of the cornfield, without so much as a "thank you!"
mr. frog gazed after him mournfully.
"if that isn't just my luck!" he lamented. "i ought to have kept the secret till after the old boy had his breakfast. then perhaps he'd have been better natured."
