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"
He is talking to me, but you don't understand him," she replied. And then
she told him of the ferryman's punishment and afterward explained to the
ferryman that they wanted to stay all night with him and be fed.
He gave them some fruit and bread, which was the only sort of food he had,
and he allowed Cayke to sleep in a room of his cottage. But the Frogman he
refused to admit to his house, saying that the frog's presence made him
miserable and unhappy. At no time would he look directly at the Frogman, or
even toward him, fearing he would shed tears if he did so; so the big frog slept
on the riverbank where he could hear little frogs croaking in the river all the
night through. But that did not keep him awake; it merely soothed him to
slumber, for he realized how much superior he was to them.
Just as the sun was rising on a new day, the ferryman rowed the two travelers
across the river--keeping his back to the Frogman all the way--and then Cayke
thanked him and bade him goodbye and the ferryman rowed home again.
On this side of the river, there were no paths at all, so it was evident they had
reached a part of the country little frequented by travelers. There was a
marsh at the south of them, sandhills at the north, and a growth of scrubby
underbrush leading toward a forest at the east. So the east was really the
least difficult way to go, and that direction was the one they had determined to
follow.
Now the Frogman, although he wore green patent-leather shoes with ruby
buttons, had very large and flat feet, and when he tramped through the scrub,
his weight crushed down the underbrush and made a path for Cayke to follow
him. Therefore they soon reached the forest, where the tall trees were set far
apart but were so leafy that they shaded all the spaces between them with
their branches. "There are no bushes here," said Cayke, much pleased, "so we
can now travel faster and with more comfort."
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