One evening Billy and Uncle Harry were sitting on the garden bench. They were watching Hoppy Hop. It was after supper, but it was not yet dark. Hoppy Hop was sitting very still. Some flies were buzzing about near him, but he did not seem to see them.
“I don’t see why Hoppy doesn’t catch some of those flies for his supper,” said Billy to his uncle.
Uncle Harry looked at Billy, smiled, and said, “I’m afraid you have not been seeing what he is doing.”
“No,” said Billy, “I’ve been watching him for a long time. He hasn’t even moved his head.”
“He doesn’t have to,” said Uncle Harry. “The flies are buzzing so near him he can catch them without moving.”
“But, Uncle Harry, how can he catch flies without moving his head a little?” asked Billy.
“He catches them with his tongue,” said Uncle Harry. “His tongue isn’t fastened at the back of his mouth like yours. It is fastened to the front.”
Then Uncle Harry pulled his knife out of his pocket.
“Hoppy Hop’s tongue folds back into his mouth just the way my knife blade shuts back into the handle,” he said. “But he can move it much faster than I can open and shut my knife. He can flip it out of his mouth and back again almost as quickly as you can wink your eye. Didn’t you see it then?”
“His tongue is sticky,” said Uncle Harry. “It catches the fly just as sticky fly paper does. As soon as Hoppy gets the fly on his tongue he swallows it. It has no time to try to get away.”
Just then the toad gave a little jump, but the next minute he was sitting as still as ever.
“Why did Hoppy Hop jump then?” asked Billy.
“He saw a fly that was too far away for his tongue to reach,” said Uncle Harry. “He jumped just as a ball player does to catch a high ball. He can reach insects two inches away with his tongue. If they are farther away than that, he has to jump for them.”
“Oh, look!” cried Billy. “What do you suppose is the matter with him?”
Hoppy Hop did look as though something were the matter. His bright eyes were not shining on top of his head. They were sunk in, and his eyelids were closed. Just then his eyes popped up again. But the next minute they were sunk in and closed again.
Two or three times the toad’s eyes popped up and back. Then Hoppy Hop opened his mouth, and out dropped a big beetle. It had long sharp pinchers.
Uncle Harry laughed. “Hoppy Hop took too big a mouthful that time,” he said. “When you saw him he was trying to swallow that beetle. A toad’s eyes are just above the roof of his mouth. When he shuts them, they press down on the roof of his mouth. They help him to swallow a big mouthful.
“They didn’t help him to swallow this big mouthful,” said Billy.
“Oh, yes, they did,” answered Uncle Harry. “He swallowed it. But it was alive, you see. Toads eat only things that are alive. And, when the beetle found itself inside Hoppy Hop’s body, it used those big pinchers to pinch him. Hoppy Hop was glad to let it out.”
“You ought to have seen Hoppy Hop last night,” said Billy. “He tried to eat a big earthworm. When I saw him the worm was half in his mouth and half out. Hoppy Hop was pushing it in with his front feet, just as if they were hands. He pushed and pushed, but the worm wriggled and pulled. At last it got away.”
“Toads can eat small earthworms,” said Uncle Harry. “But they can’t hold on to the big ones very well. You see, toads haven’t any teeth.”
Just then Billy’s mother called. It was almost dark. Lightning bugs were beginning to fly about the garden.
So Uncle Harry and Billy started for the house. Just before they went in, Billy turned for one more look at Hoppy Hop. “Oh, Uncle Harry,” he shouted, “Hoppy just swallowed a lightning bug. I saw his tongue run out and catch it.”
Nguồn: Wikisource English — By the Roadside (Dunn and Troxell)/Hoppy Hop's Supper. Văn bản được nhập và định dạng lại; CC BY-SA 4.0, có thể áp dụng điều khoản bổ sung của tác phẩm.