Page 14 - Adventures in shadow-land

But sitting so quiet]y and watching the*insects,
and hearing their low hum around her, at last

made Eva feel drowsy; and she would have gone
to sleep* as she often did, if all of a sudden there

had not sounded, just at her feet, so that it startled
her, a loud

Croak J croak I
But it frightened the two butterflies; for away

they went, floating off on their blaclc-and-golden
wings; and the brown beetle was in so much of a

hurry to run away that he tumbled off the grass-
stalk on which he had been swinging, and as soon

as he could regain his legs, crept, as fast as they
could carry him, under a friendly mullein-leaf
which grew near, and hid himself; and the crickets

were silent; and the bees all flew away to their

hive; and the snail drew himself and his horns
into his house* so that he looked like nothing in
the world but a shell; for when beetles, and but­

terflies, and crickets, and bees, and snails hear
this croak 1 croak! they know that it is time

for them to get out of the way.
And when Eva looked down, therej just at her

feet, sat a great green toad.