What else did he say?"
"He said they were pretty," said Sammy scornfully.
"That's true, too," said David. "That boy knew a good deal. They are as
handsome as they are harmless. Did you ever know of a frog's doing any
harm? Well, that's more than can be said of boys."
Sammy was silent for a minute.
"They don't know much," he said at last.
David looked round quickly.
"Now who told you that?" said he. "In the first place, if ignorance were
any excuse for tormenting a poor creature, I might make you wretched for
an hour or two. Fortunately for you, it isn't. We don't have to stop and
ask what you know before we can be kind to you. But you make a mistake
if you think frogs are stupid. See how well they dive and swim! I have
been trying all summer, and I can't dive like that. They don't ever go
down on their shoulders and stick their heads in the mud. I taught a
frog to come and eat out of my hand. That was a brave thing for him to
do. He knew as well as you know what some boys would have done to him."
Sammy was beginning to look ashamed.
"There's just one thing more," said David. "When you have to kill
anything, kill it as quickly as you can. Don't let it suffer pain. There
isn't any excuse for half the suffering there is in this world.
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