The Tale of the Flying Frog

Illustration by Emerson  Age:  4  Paris, TN
Mrs. Natalie's Childcare

           The afternoon sun shone brightly on Polliwog Pond.  Four friends sat on the bank of the pond talking.  Audra the duck, Emerson the dragonfly, and Hayden the turtle were listening to Xavier the frog brag about how far he could jump.  He had been bragging all day long. 

Finally, his friends had had enough.  Emerson the dragonfly said, “Instead of telling us about how far you can jump, why don’t you show us?”

“Yeah, Xavier, show us,” said Audra.  “Can you jump to that lily pad out there next to the big log?”

Xavier looked out at the lily pad next to the big log.  It was a LONG way from where they were.  Truthfully, he had never jumped that far before, but he didn’t want to look bad in front of his friends.

Hayden looked out at the lily pad as well and gave Audra a nasty look.  “Audra, there’s no way Xavier can jump that far and you know it.”

Illustration by Audra  Age:  Almost 2  Paris, TN
Mrs. Natalie's Childcare

Xavier didn’t like the fact that Hayden had said he couldn’t do it, even though he was probably right.  “Who says I can’t jump that far,” said Xavier defiantly.

“We all do,” said Audra.  “So put up or shut up.”

That did it.  Xavier was going to jump to that lily pad or die trying.   He backed away from the bank of the pond to get a running start.  Then he took off with all his might and leaped as hard as he could.  He sailed through the air and landed in the water two feet from the lily pad.  Splash!!!

He came up to the surface of the water and swam back to shore.  He didn’t even look at his friends because he could hear them giggling.  He backed farther away from the shore and tried again.  This time he fell just one foot shy of the lily pad.  Splash!!!

Hitting the water that hard really hurt, but he didn’t even say a word.  He climbed back out of the water and decided to use a different strategy.  He grabbed a long cattail that was next to the shore and bent it back.  When his friends saw what he was doing, they got nervous.

“Hey, Xavier, you don’t have to kill yourself trying to make it to that lily pad,” said Hayden nervously.  “Audra, was just being mean suggesting something that was that far away.”

“Yeah, Xavier, this is not a good idea,” said Audra.  “I just wanted you to stop bragging.”

Xavier looked at his friends defiantly and hopped onto the bent cattail.  It shot him into the air.  This time he flew past the lily pad and landed on the big log with a thud.  He slid off the log into the water and didn’t immediately come to the surface.

Audra panicked.  She swam as fast as she could to where Xavier had gone under and dipped her head under the water.  She saw him sinking to the bottom and grabbed him with her bill.  She pulled him to the surface and dragged him back to shore.

Xavier lay there coughing up water and moaning.  “He’s alive!” shouted Audra.  Then she turned on him angrily and said, “Don’t you ever do something that stupid ever again!”

Xavier hurt too bad to argue with her.  Then Audra calmed down and said, “I’m sorry I told you to try for that lily pad.  That was mean.  You scared me when you hit that log.”

Xavier looked up at his friends and said, “I’m sorry guys.  I didn’t mean to scare you.  That was probably the most stupid thing I have ever done.”

His friends didn’t argue.  For the rest of that day the friends talked about Xavier’s crazy flight through the air and how scary it was.  From that day on if Xavier ever decided he wanted to brag, his friends would just look at him and say, “flying frog.”  That was all it took.