For 35 years, I taught in a small rural high school during the school year and worked on my uncle’s farm in the summer. Most people would describe the school, located 40 miles from the nearest town, as “being out in the wilderness.” Although it drew students from miles around, the student body size averaged about 75 kids in grades nine through 12. Obviously, there were few teachers. Each one of us had to be qualified to teach several subjects. For example, I taught five different subjects in a six-period day.
Although most of my training was in social studies, I was required to teach speech (actually, public speaking) to the juniors. Since everyone needs to learn to express himself clearly, students were required to take the class. Studies have shown that public speaking is one of the three most stressful events a person can experience (the other two being loss of a spouse and the loss of a job). The class had to consist of training that would be useful.
One of the things I tried to teach the students was how to use their voices effectively. Probably more than the actual words a person uses, the inflection in the voice produces results in the hearer. To accomplish that, the students needed to have what they were going to say well in mind. Thus, one project required each student to choose a short poem (at least three stanzas), commit it to memory and then deliver it to the class with appropriate voice inflection. Something memorized can be spoken without difficulty with the focus on how the voice was being used. As you can guess, the students hated the project!
Learning from The Two Frogs poem
A good leader never asks his followers to do what he wouldn’t do. Therefore, every year I recited a poem for the students, showing how to illustrate voice inflection. Although there were terms in the poem that they didn’t understand, the students loved it! In fact, the “Frog Poem” was so popular that, several times each year, students would request that I deliver it. Out of the clear blue sky, some student would say, “Hey Mr. Ballard: Quote the frog poem.”
The poem tells a meaningful story. I explained to the students that many small farmers regularly sold milk in special cans to nearby creameries. “Watering down,” as this farmer did, was not acceptable. When the can got to its destination and was opened, the frogs in the can were a dead give-away that the milk in the can had been adulterated and it would not be accepted.
At least two of my students went on to bigger things because of their ability to communicate. A young lady was elected (and re-elected several times) to the city council of Boise, Idaho, our state’s capital city. A young man has risen in the computer world to a position where he is one of a select few who determine international standards. I like to think the frogs and I had a small part in their success. FC
Despite our rural setting, the students struggled with the poem’s old-fashioned language. Definitions of each unfamiliar word or phrase, linked to letters or numbers, follow.
The Two Frogs
Author UnknownA
Two gay 1 young frogs from inland bogs 2
had spent the night in drinking.
When morning broke and they awoke while still their eyes were blinking,
a farmer’s pail 3 came to the swale 4 and caught them quick as winking.
Before they could gather scattered senses or breathe a prayer for past offences,
that granger grave 5, that guileless 6 man, dumped them in the milkman’s can.
The can filled up, the lid came down
and soon they were started off to town.
The luckless frogs began to quake and sober up on cold milkshake.
They swim for life, they kick and swim until their weary eyes grow dim
and gasping cried one weary sport, “Say, old boy, I’ve had enough
of this ‘swim for life’. I wasn’t raised on a milk diet!” 7
“Tut, tut, my lad,” the other cried, “Just keep kicking, that’s my plan.
We yet may see outside this can.” 8
“No use, no use,” 9 faint heart replied,
turned up his toes and gently died.
The braver frog kept on swimming with a right good will until,
with joy too great to utter,
he found he had churned a lump of butter. 10
And climbing on that lump of grease
he floated around with greatest ease.
The moral of this story is: When times are hard,
no trade in town.
Don’t get discouraged and go down.
Just keep on trying, no murmur utter,
a few more kicks may bring the butter. 11
Key:
- When a poem is recited in public, the title and author must be announced.
- The word “gay” in earlier times meant “enthusiastic, happy-go-lucky.”
- An inland bog is a low-lying piece of marshy ground not necessarily associated with a larger body of water.
- “Pail” is another word for bucket.
- “Swale” is a ditch in a marshy area that would be full of water.
- In the days when many Americans were farmers, the largest and most influential farming organization was the Grange. A member would be called a “granger”; one lacking a light-hearted personality would be considered “grave.”
- A person with “guile” has an agenda or plan. To be “guileless” meant the farmer was “just winging it.”
- Here, the person reciting the poem makes a major change in his voice to convey the frog’s fatigue and discouragement.
- Here, the person reciting the poem responds immediately in a different voice, one conveying conviction and determination.
- The voice of the pathetic frog again conveys resignation.
- Butter was the byproduct of the cream being churned at just the right temperature by the kicking frog’s legs. Butter floats on milk.
- A good outcome will be the result.
A retired high school history teacher, Clell G. Ballard has worked on farms since he was in grade school, including 53 summers spent working on his uncle’s dryland hay and grain ranch. He also is a dealer of World War II era military vehicles and parts. Contact him at (208) 764-2313 (and bear in mind the time difference with Mountain Standard Time) or by email at cballard@northrim.net.
Originally published in the April 2023 issue of Farm Collector.