Pebbles and Shells (Hawkes collection)/All About Frogs

by Clarence Hawkes

POEMS OF CHILDHOOD

ALL ABOUT FROGS

A frog is something like a toad,
Only he lives down by the road
Where there's a pond and lily pads,
And toads, they live in folk's back yards.

A toad is fat, a frog is lean,
The suit he wears is always green,
Except his vest, and that is yellow,
And he's a mighty funny fellow.

Sometimes he sits beside a pad
And smiles at you, like he was glad,
And then he goes down in kerplunk,
And kicks around like he was drunk

And when you think he's surely drowned,
He's gone so long, you look around
And you will see him on a stone,
A catchin' flies and havin' fun.

Sometimes I poke him with a stick
To see him jump, he goes so quick,
So very quick, I do declare
You cannot see him in the air.

But some bad boys throw stones at him
And he gets killed, if he don't swim
Down out of sight, and quiet stay
Until the bad boys go away.

My pa, he knows, and he says frogs
Are but big grown up pollywogs;
I didn't see how that could be,
And so I thought one day I'd see.

I went and caught a pollywog
And laid him down upon a log,
And watched him for an hour or so,
But I am sure he didn't grow.

When I told Papa, he looked queer
And said it took almost a year
For them to grow, and that was why
I could not see it with my eye.