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Sunday
seemed to take forever for Tom and Laura the twins. They were in the
car ready to go to Grans before their mum and dad had even finished
breakfast. "WhatÕs the hurry?" their mother asked as she got
into the car, "Oh, we just love going to Grans" they both replied.
As the car pulled up, the twins jumped out, hugged their Gran and ran upstairs to the attic. They pulled out the book from the big wooden chest and sat down. This time they turned each page slowly, looking at the pictures. They came to a picture of a large pond. "Oh Tom" Laura said "letÕs go to the pond, I love looking at the fish and the frogs." "Alright!" said Tom. Carefully they climbed into the book. It was hot so the twins took off their jumpers. They sat for a while watching the fish as they swam around popping up now and then to grab insects that got too close to the surface of the water. "WhatÕs that?" asked Laura, pointing to little blobs floating about. "ThatÕs frogspawn" he replied. They watched a frog frantically trying to gather her spawn and place them at the edge of the pond. But each time she got the spawn in a bundle some would float away. "She looks very cross!" Tom said "and she looks exhausted" Laura added. "LetÕs try and find something to keep the eggs together and safe". The twins looked around, Tom found a plastic bag that someone had thrown down. "Will this do?" Tom asked. "No, I donÕt think so! When the spawn hatch into tadpoles they wonÕt be able to get out!" Laura told Tom. "Oh yes, I hadnÕt thought of that!" replied Tom, feeling a bit foolish. The twins continued to look. Laura found a discarded fishing net. "LetÕs try this" Laura said. They put the net into the water, but the tiny eggs just slipped through! "Oh, weÕre never going to find anything at this rate!" Laura told Tom. With that Tom, who was looking around by a fence, shouted to Laura, "I think IÕve found something?" she rushed over to see tom gathering old spiderswebs. "ItÕs sticky!" Tom said, trying to peel it from his hands. "It will stick the spawn together and itÕs weak enough for the tadpoles to break through it when they hatch!" "Oh Tom!" Laura said, "you are clever!" When they had gathered enough, they carried it to the pond. But as soon as it touched the water it turned slimy. The twins collected the eggs and wrapped the slimy cobwebs around. It worked beautifully. The frogs spawn was in one big bunch. The children stepped back from the pond and watched all the other frogs climb out of the pond to collect spiders webs. "They think itÕs a good idea!" Tom said. "I wonder if it will catch on?" Laura asked. Just then it started to rain, so the twins picked up their jumpers and climbed out of the book. Back in the attic they closed the book and put it away. "I wonder where we will go next week?" Laura asked, "Oh, I expect we will find someone or something that needs our help!" replied Tom. The twins left the attic and went down stairs smiling.
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Gathering
Spawn By Amanda J Rees
