for a long time after he took the measurements of the beaver family mr. frog kept carefully out of sight. though several of the beavers visited his shop every day, they always found the door locked and the shades drawn. but from various odd sounds—such as giggles and titters and snickers—which they heard by listening at the keyhole, they knew that the tailor was inside.
to all their knocks and calls, however, mr. frog made no other response. he was working busily, and he did not want to be interrupted.[78]
at last, to the delight of everybody, a notice appeared one evening upon mr. frog's door, which said:
to-morrow will be
fitting-day
well, never was such excitement known in the beaver family—unless it was when the great freshet came, and almost washed away the dam. and it was lucky there was no freshet upon mr. frog's fitting-day, for there would have been no one except the women and children to do any work. some of the young dandies even spent the night right in front of mr. frog's tailor's shop, in order to be among the first to try on their new clothes, which were to be five years ahead of the times.
when mr. frog opened his door bright[79] and early the following morning he had to beg his eager customers to keep order.
"there's a suit here for everybody," he announced. "but if you crowd into my shop i may get the garments mixed. and that would be terrible."
so the beaver gentlemen were as quiet and orderly as they could be. but as for mr. frog himself, he jumped around as if he were standing in a hot frying-pan. he hustled his customers into their suits in no time, assuring each one that his garments fitted him perfectly, and asking him please to step out through the back door and wait.
by the time the last beaver had on his new clothes, and mr. frog followed him into the back-yard, the tailor found that there was a frightful uproar outside. there wasn't one of the beavers who didn't claim that there was something[80] wrong about his new clothes. but whether sleeves, trousers or coat-tails were too short or too long, or whether they were too loose or too tight, mr. frog declared that they were exactly as they should be, because they were bound to be in style in five years' time, and nobody—so he said—could prove otherwise.
of course, the beaver family was far from satisfied. though they had what they had been wishing for, they couldn't help thinking that they looked very queer—as, indeed, they did.
but ferdinand frog told the crowd that it was only because they weren't used to being dressed in that fashion. he said he certainly was pleased with their appearance and that he had never seen any company that looked the least bit like them.
there was one beaver, however, who[81] shouted angrily that he knew his suit wasn't fashionable and that he wouldn't accept it.
