Page:Sketches by Mark Twain.djvu/64

62

NCE the creatures of the forest held a great convention and appointed a commission consisting of the most illustrious scientists among them to go forth, clear beyond the forest and out into the unknown and unexplored world, to verify the truth of the matters already taught in their schools and colleges and also to make discoveries. It was the most imposing enterprise of the kind the nation had ever embarked in. True, the government had once sent Bull Frog, with a picked crew, to hunt for a north–westerly passage through the swamp to the right-hand corner of the wood, and had since sent out many expeditions to hunt for Dr. Bull Frog; but they never could find him, and so Government finally gave him up and ennobled his mother to show its gratitude for the services her son had rendered to science. And once Government