Out of Context

The Adventures of Grandfather Frog
Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo) Burgess

“I guess I’ve frightened him to death,” said Bowser, talking to himself. “I didn’t mean to do that. I just wanted to have some fun with him.” With that, Bowser took one more sniff and then trotted off to try to find something more exciting. You see, he hadn’t had the least intention in the world of really hurting Grandfather Frog.

Grandfather Frog kept perfectly still until he was sure that Bowser was nowhere near. Then he gave a great sigh of relief and crawled under a big mullein leaf to rest, and think things over.

“Chugarum, that was a terrible experience; it was, indeed!” said he to himself, shivering at the very thought of what he had been through. “Nothing like that ever happened to me in the Smiling Pool. I’ve always said that the Smiling Pool is a better place in which to live than is the Great World, and now I know it. The question is, what had I best do now?”

Now right down in his heart Grandfather Frog knew the answer. Of course the best thing to do was to go straight back to the Smiling Pool as fast as he could. But Grandfather Frog is stubborn. Yes, Sir, he certainly is stubborn. And Stubbornness is often just another name for foolishness. He had told Jerry Muskrat that he was going out to see the Great World. Now if he went back, Jerry would laugh at him.