`` Where are Old Mr. Toad 's last year 's children ? '' asked Peter . `` Do n't ask me , '' replied Jerry . `` They hopped away last summer . Never saw anything like the way those Toad youngsters grow . Those Toad pollywogs you see now will turn into real Toads , and be leaving the Smiling Pool in a few weeks . People think Old Mr. Toad is slow , but there is nothing slow about his children . Look at that little fellow over there ; he 's begun to grow legs already . '' Peter looked , and sure enough there was a pollywog with a pair of legs sprouting out . They were his fore legs , and they certainly did make him look funny . And only a few days before there had n't been a sign of legs . `` My gracious ! '' exclaimed Peter . `` What a funny sight ! I thought my babies grew fast , but these beat them . '' X THE LITTLE TOADS START OUT TO SEE THE WORLD The world is a wonderful great big place And in it the young must roam To learn what their elders have long since learned -- There 's never a place like home . It had been some time since Peter Rabbit had visited the Smiling Pool to watch the pollywogs . But one cloudy morning he happened to think of them , and decided that he would run over there and see how they were getting along . So off he started , lipperty-lipperty-lip . He wondered if those pollywog children of Old Mr. Toad would be much changed .
The last time he saw them some of them had just begun XXXXX grow legs , although they still had long tails .
about at in into like of off over since to