The Fantastic Adventures of William Frog. D. R. Key

      Introduction

      Once upon a time there was a small and very funny little frog. He lived in Eccles pond in the heart of Dingly Dell forest. His name was William, or Will to some of his friends. But he preferred to be called William.

      He was a happy and cheeky young frog - and very handsome. He was luminous green with pretty black stripes and patterns along his side, golden eyes and long sticky toes – of which he was very proud.

      He was a good hopper - but was always getting into scrapes with the other reptiles, fish and birds that lived in the pond. He nearly got into arguments with some big angry bull frogs who were many times his size. Sometimes they found him very annoying and loud. Which, in fact, he often was. But if they bobbled towards him looking grumpy and about to give him a good telling off, he always managed to hop away. This mini amphibian was the sort to laugh off his cares and was never too serious about anything.

      William just drifted around day after day mostly eating flies, getting into trouble and croaking. He was also very good at swimming. But even though he was fast, most of the other good swimmers, like the goldfish and the minnows, thought he was a rather stupid swimmer. But that was his special trick, stupid swimming. And he did it on purpose sometimes, just to make the others think he was no good at it. Legs in front, flippers in the air, blowing bubbles and croaking “Rrrubub.” You know the sort of thing.

      One day, when he was swimming around doing nothing in particular, except a bit of stupid swimming, something caught his eye. There in front of him, not two lily pads away, was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was a little moorhen.

      She was probably four times the size of William but still tiny compared to some of the huge birds that visited the pond. She was so, so, pretty and so, so, elegant that he fell in love - immediately. He knew it must be love because his smile widened and his heart bumped faster and faster in his bright green chest. He had a funny feeling inside, too. It was almost the same when he had a crush on Lucy his classmate at Dingles Tadpole school – but that’s another story.

      She had jet black feathers and bright brown eyes. At that moment he knew that she would not notice a silly frog – even if he was an emerald green and very handsome one – unless he did something to make her take notice. He wasn't sure if frogs were supposed to make girlfriends of moorhens, but this was such a wonderful feeling that he was going to do so anyway.

      So, while the sun was sizzling and the rest of the pond life was snoozing, he decided to do something amazing. Slowly and carefully he swam and hopped out of the pond and quietly made his way to the foot of the tallest Willow tree on the bank.

      It took him so long to climb the tree and he was so tired that he did not really think about what he was going to do once he was up there. He had a slippery body even though he had suction cup feet. As a result, it seemed to William that he slipped and slid more than he climbed. But he made it eventually and all the time he did his best to look cool. Not an easy task with a scorching sun on a little green back. Just in case anyone was looking, you understand.

      Up to the top of the tree he climbed and along a less than sturdy looking branch. However, this was a vantage point from where he could clearly see her and she would surely have to notice him. The beautiful little bird meanwhile took her time eating the weeds and the bugs and pretended not to be paying any attention at all to this funny green frog.

      Finally, hot and tired and with aching legs, William was ready. He started to wonder what he was going to do now he had climbed the tree. He decided that he would do a little dance and then jump off it and make a big splash. He checked to see that she was still there. “Rrrubub.” She was. My moves will impress her, he thought. But when he looked down he got very, very scared. It was such a long way up.

       " Well from that day in Eccles pond, some things were not the same.

       For frog had fallen so in love and Meghan was her name."