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XXIII
A MERRY SONG
TIMOTHY TURTLE made such a
noise that the Frog family had to stop singing. "It's not fair!" he
cried. "You're peeping!"
"Well, so are
you!" Ferdinand Frog retorted.
"I only opened my eyes
to make sure that you were doing as I asked you to," Mr. Turtle replied
with an injured air.
"And we didn't shut
ours, because we wanted to watch you,"
said Mr. Frog.
"Can't you trust
me?" Timothy snapped.
"Certainly!"
Ferdinand Frog replied.
"Oh,
yes! We can trust you!" And he winked
at his friends.
"You don't want to hurt
my feelings, do you?" Timothy Turtle went on.
"No, indeed!"
everybody exclaimed. And then Ferdinand Frog told Timothy that they
would sing
a special song in his honor.
"Fire away!"
Timothy ordered them. And the whole company knew, when he said that,
that if he
really cared anything at all for singing he never would have spoken of
it in
that fashion.
They were just about to
begin the song when Timothy Turtle stopped them. "What's this thing
called?" he demanded.
"It's known,"
Ferdinand Frog explained, "as 'A Merry Song.'"
And then the whole Frog
family began to bellow their loudest:
|
A MERRY SONG To you it may sound sad. And if you think it loud and long We think that it's not bad. We'll sing about a grumpy one Who snaps and bites all day. And if you call that "having fun" We make reply, "Go 'way!" He has a glittering, wicked eye And also cruel jaws. And if you ask the reason why, We'll answer you, "Because!" He'll stretch his neck and grab you quick – Don't let him come too near! And if you poke him with a stick He'll seize that too – oh, dear! Now, we'll admit he swims quite well And that he's slow ashore. Don't ask us if he wears a shell Until we tell you more. Don't ask us if he's fond of fish Nor seek to learn his age. And kindly don't express a wish To see him in a rage! Don't ask us if his claws are strong And if he has a tail. It might be short and blunt, or long And pointed like a nail. We do not want to cause you pain. We would not give offense – But, sir, you'll not come here again If you have any sense. |
After the last echo of the
song had lost itself in the depths of Cedar Swamp, the singers all
turned,
smiling, to their listener.
But his face wore no smile.
On the contrary, Timothy Turtle frowned darkly. "You can't
fool me!"
he cried. "You don't like me! You don't want me here!"
Ferdinand Frog swallowed a
few times.
"Well," said he,
"of course my manners are so elegant that I simply couldn't
dispute one of my elders. And anyhow, Mr. Turtle, you'd
find that our singing sounded twice as well if you were half a mile
away."
"It certainly couldn't
sound any worse than it does here," Timothy Turtle declared –
a remark
which made the Frog family grin broadly.
He said no more, but slipped
into the water and struck out towards home. There was a lively
scattering of
those who found themselves in Timothy Turtle's path. And for a
time it looked
as if the singing party had broken up in disorder.
But after a while everybody
came back again – that is, everybody but Timothy Turtle. He
hurried away and
spent most of the whole night buried in the mud at the bottom of Black
Creek.
For even until daybreak that merry song came floating
now and then across
Pleasant Valley.
And Timothy Turtle did not
like it. He thought it not only loud and long, but most unpleasant as
well.
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1999-2005
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