A turtle came along the river.
“Frog, ask the turtle to go away,” said Toad. “I do not want him to see me in my bathing suit when I come out of the river.”
Frog swam to the turtle.
“Turtle,” said Frog, “please go away.”
“Why?” asked the turtle.
“Because Toad thinks that he looks funny in his bathing suit, and he does not want you to see him,” said Frog.
Some lizards were sitting nearby.
“Does Toad really look funny in his bathing suit?” they asked.
A snake came out of the grass.
“If Toad looks funny in his bathing suit,” said the snake, “then I want to see him.”
“We want to see him too,” said two dragonflies.
“I want to see something funny, too,” said a field mouse.
Frog swam back to Toad.
“I am sorry, Toad,” he said. “Everyone wants to see you in your bathing suit.”
“Then I will stay here in the river until they go away,” said Toad.
The turtle and the lizards and the snake and the dragonflies and the field mouse all sat at the river. They waited for Toad to come out of the water.
“Please,” cried Frog, “please go away!”
But no one went away. Toad got colder and colder. He started to shiver.
“I must come out of the water,” said Toad, “or I will get a cold.”
Toad got out of the river. The water ran out of his bathing suit. The turtle laughed. The lizards laughed. The snake laughed. The field mouse laughed, and Frog laughed, too.
“Why are you laughing, Frog?” asked Toad.
“I am laughing, Toad,” said Frog, “because you really look funny in your bathing suit!”
“I know that,” said Toad. Then he took his clothes and went home.
Toad was sitting by his house.
Frog came in and said, “What is wrong, Toad? You look sad.”
“Yes,” answered Toad, “this my sad time of day. It is the time when I wait for the mail. It always makes me very unhappy.”
“But why?” asked Frog
“Because I never get any mail,” said Toad.
“Never?” asked Frog.
“No, never,” said Toad. “No one sends me letters. Every day my mailbox is empty.
That is why the mail time is a sad time for me.”
Frog and Toad sat together, feeling sad.
Then Frog said, “I have to go home now, Toad. There is something that I must do.”
Frog went home. He found a pencil and a piece of paper. He wrote on the paper. He put the paper in an envelope. On the envelope he wrote: “A LETTER FOR TOAD”.
Then Frog ran out of his house. He saw a snail that he knew.