Page:Garshin - Signal and Other Stories (1912).djvu/289

Rh lucky for her, because she flopped into a muddy pond on the edge of the village.

She quickly appeared from out of the water, and with all her might began to cry out:

"It was I—it was I who thought of it!"

But there was no one near her. The local frogs, frightened by the unexpected splash, had all disappeared under water. When they began to reappear they gazed at the new arrival with astonishment.

And she related to them a wonderful story of how she had thought all her life about the matter, and had at last invented a new, unusual method of travelling by ducks. How she had her own special ducks which carried her where she wanted to go. How she had been in the beautiful South, where it was so nice, where there are such lovely warm swamps, and such quantities of midges, and every other kind of edible insects.

"I have come here to see how you live," she said. "I shall stay with you until the spring, until my ducks, which I have let go, return."

But the ducks never returned. They thought that the frog had been smashed to pieces by her fall, and were very sorry for her.