56 THE SECOND FROGGY FAIRY BOOK.

quiver. Elsie’s companion was grave and.
anxious.

| I must win this @ame, he said “Is I
win, I shall indeed be free.”

He called:

“ Shake the dice-box !”

'Therewith the toad monster lifted the half
_ of an English walnut shell, and held it before
his great mouth, which he opened. Disgusting
to relate, a large insect crawled out and toppled
over the edge of the toad’s lower jaw into the
shell,

“What's that?” Elsie questioned.

“A bee,” the boy answered. “The King
is full of them:;  ~

) Alive ©) asked) Elsie im homitied —un-
belief. ,

“Certainly; that’s the way he eats them.
He just gobbles them down whole.”

“Why, the cannibal!” Elsie said indig-
nantly.

The Toad King was shaking the walnut
shell, with clutch over the open part.

“Ply or fall?” he grunted in a thick, deep
voice.

“Fall!” the boy answered.

The toad uncovered the shell, and the bee
buzzed out and flew into the air.