Frog and Toad
from Frog and Toad Are Friends written and illustrated by Arnold Lobel
A Lost Button
Toad and Frog went for a long walk. They walked across a large meadow.
They walked in the woods. They walked along the river. At last they went
back home to Toad’s house.
“Oh, drat,” said Toad. “Not only do my feet hurt, but I have lost one of
the buttons on my jacket.”
“Don’t worry,” said Frog. “We will go back to all the places where we
walked. We will soon find your button.”
They walked back to the large meadow. They began to look for the button
in the tall grass.
“Here is your button!” cried Frog.
“That is not my button,” said Toad. “That button is black. My button was
white.” Toad put the black button in his pocket.
A sparrow flew down. “Excuse me,” said the sparrow. “Did you lose a
button? I found one.”
“That is not my button,” said Toad. “That button has two holes. My
button had four holes.” Toad put the button with two holes in his
pocket.
They went back to the woods and looked on the dark paths.
“Here is your button,” said Frog.
“That is not my button,” cried Toad.
“That button is small. My button was big.” Toad put the small button in
his pocket.
A raccoon came out from behind a tree. “I heard that you were looking
for a button,” he said. “Here is one that I just found.”
“That is not my button!” wailed Toad.
“That button is square. My button was round.” Toad put the square button
in his pocket.
Frog and Toad went back to the river. They looked for the button in the
mud.
“Here is your button,” said Frog.
“That is not my button!” shouted Toad.
“That button is thin. My button was thick.”
Toad put the thin button in his pocket. He was very angry. He jumped up
and down and screamed, “The whole world is covered with buttons, and not
one of them is mine!”
Toad ran home and slammed the door. There, on the floor, he saw his
white, four-holed, big, round, thick button.
“Oh,” said Toad. “It was here all the time. What a lot of trouble I have
made for Frog.”
Toad took all of the buttons out of his pocket. He took his sewing box
down from
the shelf. Toad sewed the buttons all over his jacket.
The next day Toad gave his jacket to Frog. Frog thought that it was
beautiful. He put it on and jumped for joy. None of the buttons fell
off. Toad had sewed them on very well.
A Swim
Toad and Frog went down to the river. “What a day for a swim,” said
Frog. “Yes,” said Toad.
“I will go behind these rocks and put on my bathing suit.”
“I don’t wear a bathing suit,” said Frog.
“Well, I do,” said Toad. “After I put on my bathing suit, you must not
look at me until I get into the water.”
“Why not?” asked Frog.
“Because I look funny in my bathing suit. That is why,” said Toad.
Frog closed his eyes when Toad came out from behind the rocks. Toad was
wearing his bathing suit. “Don’t peek,” he said.
Frog and Toad jumped into the water. They swam all afternoon.
Frog swam fast and made big splashes. Toad swam slowly and made smaller
splashes.
A turtle came along the riverbank.
“Frog, tell that 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 over to the turtle. “Turtle,” said Frog, “you will have to go
away.”
“Why should I?” 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 crawled out of the grass. “If Toad looks funny in his bathing
suit,” said the snake, “then I, for one, want to see him.”
“We want to see him too,” said two dragonflies.
“Me too,” said a field mouse. “I have not seen anything funny in a long
time.”
Frog swam back to Toad. “I am sorry, Toad,” he said. “Everyone wants to
see how you will look.”
“Then I will stay right here until they go away,” said Toad.
The turtle and the lizards and the snake and the dragonflies and the
field mouse all
sat on the riverbank. They waited for Toad to come out of the water.
“Please,” cried Frog, “please go away!” But no one went away.
Toad was getting colder and colder. He was beginning to shiver and
sneeze. “I will have to come out of the water,” said Toad. “I am
catching a cold.”
Toad climbed out of the river. The water dripped out of his bathing suit
and down onto his feet.
The turtle laughed. The lizards laughed. The snake laughed. The field
mouse laughed, and Frog laughed.
“What are you laughing at, Frog?” said Toad.
“I am laughing at you, Toad,” said Frog, “because you do look funny in
your bathing suit.”
“Of course I do,” said Toad. Then he picked up his clothes and went
home.
You can share more good times with these two friends in Arnold Lobel’s
other books, Days with Frog and Toad and Frog and Toad Together. And
if you would like to learn about real frogs and toads, and how to tell
them apart, try The Toad Hunt by Janet Chenery.
