书城教材教辅科学读本(英文原版)(套装1-6册)
47723000000268

第268章 第三册(93)

""But by this time those humps at the sides of it had formed into a pair of beautiful long legs, and feet with webbed toes, just made for swimming. The other humps in front, too, had grown into another pair of legs, so that I found myself with four limbs, just as you see me now.

""My head and body had also grown larger and broader. Besides this, as my head took a more respectable, frog-like shape, my mouth became large and broad, and changed places to the front of my head, where it is now.

""Two things then happened. First I went quite off my appetite; that is to say, I couldn"t eat those green shoots of the water-plants any longer. I seemed to have a craving for animal food.

""At the same time I felt that I was being stifled. My gills had wasted away entirely, and now I could no longer breathe in the water. Something-I can"t tell what it was-prompted me to leave the water, and as soon as I got on the bank by the pond, Ifound I could breathe air, for I had lungs instead of gills.

""Just then a small beetle ran past me. I was only a very little fellow then, but I pounced upon it like lightning, and swallowed it in a moment.