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 to grow legs , although they still had long tails . He had almost reached the Smiling Pool when great big drops of rain began to splash down . And with those first raindrops something funny happened . Anyway , it seemed funny to Peter . Right away he was surrounded by tiny little Toads . Everywhere he looked he saw Toads , tiny little Toads just like Old Mr. Toad , only so tiny that one could have sat comfortably on a ten-cent piece and still had plenty of room . Peter 's big eyes grew round with surprise as he stared . Where had they all come from so suddenly ? A minute before he had n't seen a single one , and now he could hardly move without stepping on one . It seemed , it really seemed , as if each raindrop turned into a tiny Toad the instant it struck the ground . Of course Peter knew that that could n't be , but it was very puzzling . And all those little Toads were bravely hopping along as if they were bound for some particular place . Peter watched them for a few minutes , then he once more started for the Smiling Pool . On the very bank whom should he meet but Old Mr. Toad . He looked rather thin , and his back was to the Smiling Pool . Yes , Sir , he was hopping away from the Smiling Pool where he had been all the spring , singing in the great chorus .
Peter was almost as surprised XXXXX see him as he had been to see the little Toads , but just then he was most interested in those little Toads .
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