Froggy and Eunice

Introduction

Froggy is a red-eyed tree toad and her best friend Eunice is one of those beautifully-colored pearlescent beetles that reflect emerald green when you look at them from one direction and peacock blue when you look from another. I know that Froggy is a red-eyed tree toad because her eyes are red and she spends as much time as possible out of doors.

Froggy and Eunice pass their days sitting on a stone wall under two large maple trees, thinking and talking about what MATTERS. Their favorite pastimes are looking under rocks and observing the lifestyle of ants. Froggy especially likes watching ants work, because it gives her a great feeling of accomplishment without actually having to do anything herself.

Within these pages, Froggy and Eunice invite you to share some of the most intimate moments of their days together.

Chapter I

Froggy and Eunice become friends

Now you might be wondering how Froggy and Eunice became such good friends, since Eunice is a beetle and Froggy is a toad. Eunice might be considered more likely to be something Froggy would have for lunch (and I don’t mean for polite conversation) rather than someone with whom she would strike up a lifelong friendship.

Actually, Froggy does not eat any insects or worms or things of that nature. It’s not that she’s overly fastidious or particularly refined, (although she does like her cotton dresses pressed and a fresh ribbon to wear each day). It’s just that she finds that the entertainment potential of insects far outweighs their nutritional value.

Froggy could amuse herself for hours looking under rocks, searching out interesting creatures (especially after a good rain).

Her favorite feeling is that little thrill of excitement she gets the moment a newly discovered rock is turned over, and there before her eyes is a splendid vision of squiggling, wiggling wildlife scampering to who knows where. A startled army of worms, roly-polies and centipedes crawl away so fast, she wonders if they were ever there at all.

She might see half a worm sticking up, that the slightest touch will send disappearing into the ground. Or comical roly-polies that, upon being discovered, shape themselves into perfect little armor-covered balls. It all happens so quickly that she has to be very attentive or it will become nothing more than a memory before her very eyes. No living thing will remain except those peculiar, thin, white threads of undersized plants that look pale and puny for lack of sunlight, yet still manage somehow to grow under rocks.

The wonder of this enchanting insect world pleases Froggy beyond anything her young heart could imagine. So, of course, Froggy would not think of eating any of these interesting creatures, thereby ruining her own fun in observing them. Instead, she contents herself with lunching on peanut butter crackers, rippled potato chips and cucumber sandwiches.

It was while Froggy was amusing herself in this way, that a very small beetle was amusing herself by climbing up a nearby tree trunk and jumping off, testing her wings to see if she could fly. She would slowly and patiently climb up the side of the tree, spread her wings, and with great daring, leap off into mid air. As she was not yet very adept at flying, she would occasionally land, not on her feet as she should, but flat on her backside with her legs straight up. Usually she could turn herself over by rocking back and forth on the hard shell-like wings of her back and so begin her trek up the tree once again. This hardworking, brave, young beetle was Eunice.

Like every youngster, Eunice took the greatest pleasure in repeating this activity over and over again. So, naturally, she was becoming fatigued. It was at this point that she decided to test her skills just one more time, and of course the inevitable happened.

Eunice jumped, lost control, then began spiraling downward. She eventually landed on her back, and no matter how hard she tried, was unable to turn herself over again. So there she was, stranded on her backside, wriggling about helplessly with her feet frantically flailing the air.

At about this same time, Froggy had returned the rock she was looking under to its original resting place and was looking around for some further amusement. It was then that she heard a wee small voice crying out in distress and spotted Eunice in her predicament.

“Oh! Oh!” cried Eunice in desperation, in between her rocking and flailing. “Could someone pleeez help me!”

Froggy, who was only too happy to help, picked up a stick close to hand and put it within Eunice’s reach. Eunice grabbed it with her sticky little fingers and crawled up the side, righting herself.

“Oh, I can’t thank you enough,” gasped Eunice between great gulps of air.

“Please. Don’t mention it,” murmured Froggy, made shy by this outpouring of gratitude..

Once Eunice became quite steady on her feet, she introduced herself to Froggy. Then they had a lovely, long conversation in which it was discovered that they shared much in common. They both loved the outdoors and were particularly fond of trees. They also both loved watching ants, looking under rocks and discussing matter, and things, and things that matter.

Having discovered their mutual fascination with things that live under rocks, Froggy and Eunice began working together to turn over a particularly large flat rock nearby. Beneath it they found a bunch of those wonderful little bugs that roll up in a ball when you touch them, and began laughing and playing with them.

“Froggy?”

“Yes Eunice,” responded Froggy.

“What do you call these bugs?”

I call them roly-polies,” answered Froggy. “But my cousins in Pennsylvania call them potato bugs. I think they call them potato bugs so that they will not feel so uncomfortable when eating them.”

“What do you mean, uncomfortable?” asked Eunice, beginning to feel somewhat uncomfortable herself, not yet knowing Froggy’s preferences in food.

“Well,” explained Froggy. “It’s like when people say ‘beef’ instead of cow, or ‘pork’ instead of pig. I mean, you can’t walk up and have a conversation with beef. But a cow….well….a cow is someone that you could get to know – personally.”

“Oh, I agree,” said Eunice brightly. “I’ve had some very satisfying relationships with cows myself. Particularly their dung.”*

“Well….ahem….yes,” spluttered Froggy, picking up a stick and quickly changing the subject. “Shall we look for some more roly-polies?”

And from that day on Froggy and Eunice were fast friends. You might even say they were inseparable.

* Author’s note: For those of you who might be unfamiliar with the word “dung”, it means cow poop. Some beetles that like to hang around cow poop are called “dung beetles”.

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