Chapter 19 - Page 2

Mr. Frog informed him. "I couldn't hear a single word, even if you were to shout your head off."

"You can hear what I'm saying now well enough," Timothy pointed out.

"I read the lips," said Mr. Frog with a snicker.

That speech made Timothy Turtle start.

"Then if you can read my lips, no doubt you can read what's on my back," he said.

"That's easy," the tailor observed. "Your shell's on your back, of course."

Timothy Turtle glanced up with a look of scorn.

"Don't be silly!" he snapped. "I mean, can you read what's carved on my shell?"

"Certainly!" Mr. Frog replied. And he began to mutter, as if to himself, "J. G.--that means just grumpy, of course----"

Timothy Turtle interrupted him quickly.

"I don't care to hear any more," he screamed. And turning away, he waddled towards the water.

"That Ferdinand Frog has no manners," he spluttered. "I only wish he wasn't quite so spry." And Mr. Turtle looked very fierce as he snapped his jaws together.