A Year with Frog and Toad - Shivers

(spoken):
Toad, this is a good night for a scary story. Would you like to hear one?

Toad (spoken):
I don’t know, Frog.

Frog (spoken):
Don’t you like to be scared?

Toad (spoken):
I’m not so sure…

Frog (spoken):
When I was a very young frog, I went on a picnic with my parents….

Young Frog:
Mother Frog and Father Frog
It was a lovely picnic in the wood

Father Frog:
Mother Frog!

Mother Frog:
Yes, Father Frog!

Father Frog:
I have some news, it isn’t very good

Mother Frog:
What is the news?

Young Frog:
What is the news?

Mother Frog and Young Frog:
Father Frog, what is the news?

Father Frog:
When we set out on this picnic
The sun was on the right
And I could tell direction by the angle of the light
But now it’s gotten cloudy
We’ve traveled pretty far
And I hate to have to tell you, but I don’t know where we are!

Mother Frog:
You mean we’re lost!

Father Frog:
Yes, we are lost!

Young Frog:
We are lost?

Father Frog:
Yes, we are lost!

Toad (spoken):
You were lost?

Frog and Young Frog (spoken):
Yes, we were lost!

All:
My goodness!

Toad:
You were—

Frog Family:
We are—

All:
Lost!!

Mother Frog:
(frantic sobbing)

Young Frog (spoken):
There, there mother. Why are you so upset?

Mother Frog (spoken):
It’s nothing, son. Mother’s only…..tired! That’s all.

Father Frog (spoken):
Don’t you think we should tell him, dear?

Young Frog (spoken):
Tell me what?

Toad (spoken):
Tell him what?
Father Frog (spoken):
What lurks out there.

Young Frog (spoken):
What lurks out there??

Toad (spoken):
What lurks out there?

Mother Frog (spoken):
This is bound to frighten you!

Frog (spoken):
This is bound to frighten you…

Young Frog and Toad (spoken):
TELL ME!

Father Frog and Frog (spoken):
Very well…

Father Frog:
There is a frog
A large and terrible frog
He is terribly large and largely terrible
Terrible!

Mother Frog (spoken):
Terrible!

Young Frog and Toad (spoken):
Terrible?

Frog (spoken):
Terrible!

Father Frog:
Large and terrible frog!
He’s mean! And awful!
And he’s awful mean!
And his wrinkly skin is pasty green!
He eats little bunnies dipped in dirt,
And he likes frog children for dessert!

Young Frog and Toad (spoken):
Oh my!
Father Frog:
He is a frog
A large and terrible frog!
He is terribly large
And largely terrible!
Terrible!

Mother Frog (spoken):
Terrible!

Young Frog and Toad (spoken):
Terrible!

Frog (spoken):
Terrible!

Father Frog:
Large and terrible frog!
(spoken)
Your mother and I will go off in search of the pathway home. You stay right here.

Frog (spoken):
And so off my parents went, in search of the pathway home.

Toad (spoken):
They left you all alone?

Frog (spoken):
Yes. And soon it became dark.

Toad (spoken):
Did this really happen, Frog?

Frog (spoken):
Maybe yes, and maybe no. Should I stop telling you the story?

Toad (spoken):
No. No, no, tell me! Tell me!

Frog (spoken):
Very well. Well, as I said, it was getting dark, and there I was…

Young Frog:
I’m a young little frog all alone in the night
My parents have left, which doesn’t seem right
I am very afraid, that is how I feel
I don’t wish do end up a meal
I think eating others is rude
And I bet that it hurts being chewed!
I have such ambitious dreams and wishes
And none of my plans include
Not growing up because I wound up being food

Frog (spoken):
And I waited and waited. And it grew darker and darker. And suddenly, I had the feeling that I was not alone.

Toad (spoken):
Not alone?!

Frog (spoken):
Not alone. And then I looked up, and I saw two great eyes, staring right at me!

Young Frog and Toad (spoken):
AHHHH!!!!!

Young Frog (spoken):
Who are you??

Large and Terrible Frog (spoken):
I am the large and terrible frog.

Young Frog and Toad (spoken):
AHHHHHHHH!!!!

Young Frog (spoken):
Are you going to eat me??

Large and Terrible Frog (spoken):
Not just yet. I have eaten so many frog children tonight that I have no appetite.

Yong Frog (spoken):
Oh! Well, it was very nice to have met you. I’ll be going now.

Large and Terrible Frog (spoken):
Not so fast! First, you must do something for me.

Young Frog (spoken):
Oh, I’d be only too happy to! What is it?

Large and Terrible Frog (spoken):
After dinner, I like to have a little exercise so I can work up an appetite for a late snack.
Young Frog (spoken):
Exercise?

Large and Terrible Frog (spoken):
Yes. Skipping rope. And you shall turn for me. Take hold of that end.

Young Frog (spoken):
Yes, your large and terribleness.

Large and Terrible Frog (spoken to a beat, like a jump rope game):
Skippy, skippy, skippy, skippy, every night
Skipping helps to generate an appetite
Tadpole, tadpole, pollywog
Soon I will be snacking on a little frog
Skippy, skippy, skippy, skippy, every night
Skipping helps to generate an appetite
Some like muffins, some like scones
I like the taste of little froggy bones.
(spoken regularly)
Alright! My appetite has returned. Now come to me, little frog.

Toad (spoken):
This is terrible!

Frog (spoken):
Well, he is the large and terrible frog…

Toad:
What did you do?

Young Frog:
What shall I do?

Toad:
What did you do?

Young Frog:
What shall I do?

Both:
Whatever—

Toad:
Did you—

Young Frog:
Shall I—

Both:
Do?

Frog:
He started coming towards me
But my hand was on the rope
He was just enormous
But he also was a dope
I ran around in circles ‘till I tied him to a tree

Large and Terrible Frog:
You little whippersnapper!
What have you done to me??

Frog:
And then I ran and ran and ran and ran
And ran and ran and ran!

Mother Frog and Father Frog:
He ran and ran and ran and ran
And ran and ran and ran!

Young Frog:
I ran and ran and ran and then
I found my parents in a glen

Frog Family:
So then we came upon a path
And we went home and took a bath
A long and hot and steamy

Young Frog:
Absolutely dreamy

Frog Family:
Finally out of trouble
Bubble—

Toad (spoken):
Did this really happen, Frog?

Frog (spoken):
Maybe yes, and maybe no.

Frog Family:
Bath