For a few days after Grandpa Croaker, the old frog gentleman, had been wound around the toadstool by the snake, as I told you in the story before this one, he was so sore and stiff from the squeezing he had received, that he had to sit in an easy chair, and eat hot mush with sugar on. And, in order that he would not be lonesome, Bawly and No-Tail, the frog boys, sat near him, and read him funny things from their school books, or the paper, and Grandpa Croaker was very thankful to them.  
The frog boys wanted very much to go away and play ball with their friends, for, it being the Easter vacation, there was no school, but, instead, they remained at home nearly all the while, so Grandpa wouldn’t feel lonesome.
 
But at last one day the old gentleman frog said:
 
“Now, boys, I’m sure you must be very tired of staying with me so much. You need a little vacation. I am almost well now, so I’ll over and see Uncle Wiggily Longears. Then you may go and play ball, and here is a penny for each of you.”
 
Well, of course Bully and Bawly thanked their Grandpa, though they really hadn’t expected anything like that, and off they to the store to spend the money. For they had saved all the pennies for a long time, and they were now allowed to buy something.
 
Bully bought a picture post card to send to Aunt Lettie, the nice old lady goat, and Bawly bought a bean shooter. That is a long piece of tin, with a hole through it like a pipe, and you put in a bean at one end, blow on the other end, and out pops the bean like a out of a water bottle.
 
“What are you going to do with that bean shooter?” asked Bully of his brother.
 
“Oh, I’m going to carry it instead of a gun,” said Bawly, “and if I see that bad , or snake, again I’ll shoot ’em with beans.”
 
“Beans, won’t hurt ’em much,” Bully.
 
“No, but maybe the beans will ’em so they’ll laugh and run away,” replied his brother. Then they hopped on through the woods, and pretty soon they met Peetie and Jackie Bow Wow, the puppy dogs.
 
“Let’s have a ball game,” suggested Peetie, as he wiggled his left ear.
 
“Oh, yes!” cried Jackie, as he dug a hole in the ground to see if he could find a juicy bone, but he couldn’t I’m sorry to say.
 
Well, they started the ball game, and Bawly was so fond of his bean shooter that he kept it with him all the while, and several times, when the balls were high in the air, he tried to hit them by blowing beans at them. But he couldn’t, though the beans popped out very nicely.
 
But finally the other players didn’t like Bawly to do that, for the beans came down all around them, and them so that they had to laugh, and they couldn’t play ball.
 
Then Bawly said he’d lay his shooter down in the grass, but before he could do so his brother Bully knocked such a high flying ball that you could hardly see it.
 
“Oh, grab it, Bawly! Grab it!” cried Peetie and Jackie, dancing about on the ends of their tails, for Bawly was supposed to chase after the balls. Away he went with his bean shooter, almost as fast as an .
 
Farther and farther went the ball, and Bawly was chasing after it. All of a sudden he found himself in the back yard of a house where the ball had bounced over the fence, and of course, being a good ball player, Bawly kept right on after it. But he never expected to find himself in the yard, and he certainly never expected to see what he did see.
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